Rabithah & Connection

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

We du’a thus: 

اَللّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ هَذِهِ الْقُلُوْبَ قَدِ اجْتَمَعَتْ عَلَي مَحَبَّتِكَ، وَالْتَقَتْ عَلَى طَاعَتِكَ، وَتَوَحَّدَتْ عَلَى دَعْوَتِكَ، وَتَعَاهَدَتْ عَلَى نُصْرَةِ شَرِيْعَتِكَ، فَوَثِّقِ اللَّهُمَّ رَابِطَتَهَا، وَأَدِمْ وُدَّهَا، وَاهْدِهَا سُبُلَهَا، وَامْلَأَهَا بِنُوْرِكَ الَّذِيْ لَا يَخْبُوْا، وَاشْرَحْ صُدُوْرَهَا بِفَيْضِ الْإِيْمَانِ بِكَ، وَجَمِيْلِ التَّوَكُّلِ عَلَيْكَ، وَاَحْيِهَا بِمَعْرِفَتِكَ، وَأَمِتْهَا عَلَي الشَّهَادَةِ فِيْ سَبِيْلِكَ إِنَّكَ نِعْمَ الْمَوْلَي وَنِعْمَ النَّصِيْرِ، اَللَّهُمَّ أَمِيْنَ وَصَلِّ اللَّهُمَّ عَلَي سَيِّدَنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَي آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمْ 

“O Allah!  You Know that these hearts have come together in loving You, met together in obedience to You, united upon Your Message and entered together into a covenant to support Your Way.  O Allah! Strengthen the bond between these hearts, Make permanent the affection between them, Guide them to the right Path, Fill them with Your Light that never diminishes, Comfort these hearts with abundance of faith in You and complete trust in You, Keep them alive with knowledge of You and Give them their death in martyrdom for You.  Truly, You are the Best Protector and the Best to Give Victory, Peace and Blessings be upon Muhammad, and upon his family and companions.” 

Rabithah is to make a connection.  The purpose of that connection is to have an Opening.  This is something that occurs between a shaykh and a murid.  Every murid does muraqabah, especially after swalat and dzikr.  These are some practices that were taught to us.  The best time for dzikr and rabithah is in the last third of the night.  That is the time of Nearness.  This is the time when the Gates of Rahmah are Opened.  The air is cold at first.  And perhaps there is a scent.  There is a feeling. 

We sit on the sajadah after the spiritual exercises.  We see our shaykh, if we have one.  And then, we envision the shaykh in us, in a chain that goes back to the Prophet (s.a.w.).  We are not even dust in his eyes.  By our capacity, we are sinners who cannot reach beyond the Self.  By his capacity, he has a connection to his shaykh, who has a connection to his shaykh and so forth in an unbroken chain all the way back to Rasulullah (s.a.w.) to Allah (s.w.t.).  The aspirant thinks only of his shaykh.  The murid has become his shaykh; he has ceased to exist.  And where the Self is Absent, the Divine is Present. 

Another way, for those who do not yet have a shaykh or who are waiting for their shaykh, is this.  Imagine the self as a separate person.  It is the part of us that loves dunya.  It is the part of us that holds us back from the Promise of the Divine.  One must sit it down and speak to it as one would a belligerent child.  Say, “Laa ilaha illa Allah”, over and over again.  In a slow measured tone,  with authority and conviction.  We say it with every breath until that is the breathing.  What begins with the tongue, will slowly seem to spread outward.  It moves from the tongue to the brain.  From the brain to the heart.  Until nothing is heard but the dzikr.  Every atom in the body acknowledges it.  And then, the we becomes aware and yet not existing.  And in that, is the Opening.  It is not something that is our capacity.  We cannot reach for that Light.  Once we do, the self becomes aware and it is lost.  We reach that door many times before we cross. 

The first thing that was ever Created was the Nur of Muhammad (s.a.w.).  As it looked around, it saw only Reality.  The rest of Creation was yet to be, in a time before time.  And so Nur of Muhammad (s.a.w.) stated what it saw, the only thing that was there to be witnessed: Laa ilaha illa Allah.  It did not state that there was no god except Allah (s.w.t.).  This is about acknowledging the Reality that there was literally nothing except Allah (s.w.t.).  There is no authority, there is no power, there is governance, there is nothing.  Only Allah (s.w.t.). 

The only thing that is actually ghayb, Hidden is Allah (s.w.t.).  Only Allah (s.w.t.) can Perceive His Reality.  And He can only be Perceived by His Reality.  And thus, whilst the Veils of Creation may be Opened, we cannot be in the Divine Presence as long as we exist.  There can only be one God, one Will.  We cannot come to the Door of the Divine with the idol of the self.  We can only be with Allah (s.w.t.) by Allah (s.w.t.).