Choose a Path for yourself. You can be an Adamic human being by virtue of the inblowing of the Spirit within you…or a bestial human being by virtue of the dominance of your bestial body, so that the Spirit’s influence weakens within you. You will then become ignorant of your reality, and you will not draw out the treasure that is buried within you.

The seeker must journey from the Haʾ of the Name back to the Alif, bearing in mind their differing levels. Entering unto the singular Alif is achieved through the attributes of the saint, not through those of the believer. Attaching to the elevation of the Alif enables the knower of God to taste the reality of servanthood.

When you strive against your lower self, the reality of this world becomes evident to you, you know that it is non-existent; that it has no existence except through God. Then God provides you with light, and through that light you come to know how close He is to you.

A mantle conceals the upper part, whereas a garment conceals the lower part. The higher part of the divine mantle is an allusion to Lordship (rububiyya). This mantle of Lordship comprises two sides: the outer side is the aspect of Lordship, and inner side is the pre-cosmic reality of the Cloud (al-ʿamaʾ).

the sensorial human being is the one whose heart is stamped by the forms of the sense-objects. He is marked by a dominant love for the herebelow. Moreover, the spiritual human being is the one whose inward vision (basira) has opened up so that he perceives what lies beyond the sensorial realm.

The Prophet (s) recommends fasting during these blessed days, and it is said that Ibrahim (s) fasted them as well. The early Arabs called these days the “White Days” (al-ayyam al-biḍ) because the moon is brightest during this period and it achieves its most complete perfection.

With manifold arguments and no shortage of nagging, my teachers, father, family, friends, and loved-ones, sought to hold me back from cutting my worldly ties and setting off alone in search of God and a true master; and in their efforts to do so they would attempt to clinch the matter with various rational and religious objections.

The spiritual traveler’s journey through the Name, however, must begin at the last letter Haʾ, which we call the Haʾ of Divine Identity (haʾ al-huwiyya).

Reflective thought that is devoid of the remembrance God (fikr duna dhikr) is a transgression. For true reflection only occurs in the wake of long periods of remembrance (dhikr tawil), once your time has been filled with the invocation.

And this is the dot that is ascribed to the all-inclusive names and divine realities because it is through the basmala that God takes charge over the servant who has realized the station of servanthood and upon whom His names and attributes have become manifest in both his knowledge and his state. 

Some scholars define the middle prayer as the late-afternoon ʿAsr prayer…But the middle prayer is not, as it were, a prayer in itself. Rather, it is a flow of light. It is the manifest connection between the heart of the worshipper and his Lord. The middle prayer is therefore the locus of the divinely accepted prayer.

You have no ability to withstand its rays, for they obliterate all manifestations of duality. Withdraw then under the shade of Lordship (ẓill al-rububiyya), for its shade leaves room for servanthood. Cling to humility, and regard your ego with contempt, and remember that whatever spiritual opening that you may attain is only a minor opening.

“Truly those who pledge allegiance unto thee pledge allegiance only unto God. The Hand of God is over their hands. And whosoever reneges, reneges only to his detriment. And whosoever fulfills what He has pledged unto God, He will grant him a great reward.” (Q Fath 48:10)

God has made it obligatory upon you to struggle against your lower self in order to acquire that luminous purity, whereupon the hidden knowledge that was once curtained from you becomes manifest.

The wayfarer’s journey begins by reading the levels of the name through direct tasting. He enters into the Haʾ of Ipseity by struggling against the lower self until he passes away from it and from everything other-than-God.

Your pledge of allegiance to the People of God is a pledge of allegiance to God. It is devoid of intermediaries, though it may be qualified by them. The sign that one has pledged allegiance to the light of God is the instantaneous illumination of the heart.

Pass away in your love for the mediator by finding repose under his commands. As one report says: “die before you die.” For the deceased victims of the Lam of Contraction are martyrs (shuhadaʾ). They witness (shahidu) the beauty, splendor, and magnificence of the innermost secrets of the Path. They witness the lights that God deposited in their treasuries. 

The temptations of the imagination are nonexistent shapes that manifest in the realm of possibility. That is, these temptations manifest within the loci of the realm of separation in one’s field of vision. They are what the holy Prophet (s) likened to strips of the reed mat in the aforementioned hadith. Every strip is one of the appearances of the realm of separation.

Do not be dazzled by the multiplicity of separation. Rather, return from numbers to the One, and return from [the curvatures of the] letters to the straightness of the Alif (ا), and return from created beings to the Being-Giver (mukawwin). Obliterate the all with the light of the Creator of the all, so that nothing remains but His light in the heavens and the earth.

His is a mercy of replenishment for these worlds which are sustained by, from, and for Him, so that the subtle graces of pure meaning may flow through them.