Iqazh al-Himam fi Sharh al-Hikam, Chapter One, Part Seven

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following is taken from the first chapter of Iqazh al-Himam fi Sharh al-Hikam, a commentary on al-Hikam of Shaykh Taj ad-Din Abu al-Fadhl Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Atha’illah as-Sakandari (q.s.), by Shaykh Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ajibah (q.s.). 

Sayyidina Ka’b ibn Malik (r.a.) said, “Anyone who desires the honour of akhirah should reflect a lot.”  The best worship of Sayyidina Abu Darda’ Uwaymir ibn Zayd (r.a.) was reflection.  That is because by it one reaches the realities of things, makes the truth clear from falsehood, is aware of the hidden banes and ruses of the nafs and the delusion of this world, and by it he recognises the devices to use to protect oneself from them and be purified of them. 

Sayyidina Hasan ibn ‘Ali (r.a.) said, “Reflection is a mirror which shows you good and bad.  It also acquaints you with the Immensity and Majesty of Allah (s.w.t.) when you reflect on His Signs and Works.  It also acquaints you with His Blessings and Gifts, Majesty and Hiddenness.  By that, it gives you radiant states which remove the illness of your heart and make you go straight in obeying your Lord.” 

Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn ‘Abbad ar-Rundi (r.a.) said, “These are the fruits of the retreat of the people of the beginning.  As for the people of the end, their retreat is always with them, even if they are in the midst of people, because they are strong and veiled by gatheredness from separation and by meaning from the sensory.”  Retreat and mixing are the same for them because they take their share from each but none takes a share from them. 

Shaykh Abu Zayd ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ayyad al-Majdzub (q.s.) said, on this, “Creation is lights and I graze among them.  They are the greatest veils for the one among them.”  If the murid is ascribed to withdrawal, silence, hunger and wakefulness, his wilayah is complete, Divine Concern appears to him, lights shine on him and the forms of others are effaced from the mirror of his heart.  The shaykh indicated that when he was amazed at its opposite: “If the forms of phenomenal beings are embedded in the mirror of the heart, how can it be illuminated?”  The forms of beings are the individuals and their representations in the senses and ideas.  Beings are types of creatures, small or large.  ‘Embedded’ means ‘firm’, since when something in embedded and stamped on something, its effect appears on it.  Mirror is a metaphor for the insight which is the eye of the heart in which things, good and ugly, are manifested. 

Allah (s.w.t.) Made the heart of the human being like a polished mirror in which is embedded what is in front of it.  It has only one direction.  When Allah (s.w.t.) Desires Concern for His slaves, He Occupies his reflection with the lights of His Malakut and the secrets of His Jabarut, and the heart is not attached to the love of any of dark beings and false illusions.  So the lights of faith and ihsan are embedded in the mirror of his heart and the moons of tawhid and suns of gnosis shine in it.  That was indicated by Shaykh Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Abdullah ash-Shushtari (q.s.) when he said, “Lower the eye and you will see and your reports will appear.  Be annihilated to mankind and your secrets will appear to you.  By polishing the mirror, your denial is removed.”  Then he said, “The sphere revolves in you, gives light and shines, and the suns and the moons disappear and rise in you.  Polishing the mirror of your heart removes your denial of the Truth so that you recognise it in everything and your heart becomes the axis of the sphere of lights.  In it, the moons of tawhid and suns of gnosis appear.” 

When Allah (s.w.t.) Wants to disappoint a slave by His Justice and Wisdom, he occupies himself with dark beings and physical appetites, and those beings become embedded in the mirror of his heart and so by their phenomenal darkness and imaginary forms, he is veiled from the rising of the suns of gnosis and the lights of faith.  Whenever the forms of things pile up in him, their light is extinguished and their veil reinforced.  So we only see the sensory and only reflect on the sensory.  Part of that is the reinforcement of their veil and total extinguishing of its light and so it does not acknowledge the existence of light in its source.  That is the station of disbelief - we seek Refuge with Allah (s.w.t.)! 

Part of that is when the rust is less and the veil is thinner and so they affirm the light even though they do not witness it.  This is the station of the common Muslims.  They vary in nearness and distance, and strength and weakness of evidence, each according to his certainty and lack of ties to this world and attachments of appetites and illusion. 

In a hadits, it says that the hearts rust as iron rusts and that faith wears out as a new garment wears out.  In another hadits, it says that everything has a polisher, and that which polishes the hearts is dzikr.  The Prophet (s.a.w.) also said, “When someone commits a wrong action, a black spot forms in his heart.  If he refrains and asks Forgiveness, it is polished.  If he repeats it, it grows in the heart until it overwhelms his heart.  That is the rust which Allah (s.w.t.) Mentions: ‘By no means!  But on their hearts is the stain of the ill which they do.’” 

سُوۡرَةُ المطفّفِین

كَلَّا‌ۖ بَلۡۜ رَانَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِہِم مَّا كَانُواْ يَكۡسِبُونَ (١٤) 

By no means!  But on their hearts is the stain of the (ill) which they do! (Surah al-Muthaffifin:14) 

Since we know that the heart only has one direction, when it faces light, it shines and when it faces darkness, it is darkened.  Darkness and light are never combined.  So we then know the reason for the wonder of the shaykh when he said, “How can a heart shine with the light of faith and ihsan, when the dark forms of beings are embedded in the mirror of his heart?  Two opposites are not combined.  Allah (s.w.t.) Says, ‘Allah has not made for any man two hearts in his (one) body.’” 

سُوۡرَةُ الاٴحزَاب

مَّا جَعَلَ ٱللَّهُ لِرَجُلٍ۬ مِّن قَلۡبَيۡنِ فِى جَوۡفِهِۦ‌... (٤) 

Allah has not made for any man two hearts in his (one) body ... (Surah al-Ahzab:4) 

So, faqir, we only have one heart.  When we turn to creatures, we turn away from the Real.  When we turn to the Real, we turn away from creatures and travel from the world of Mulk to Malakut and from Malakut to Jabarut.  As long as we remain shackled in this world by our appetites, we cannot travel to our Lord.  Shaykh ibn ‘Atha’illah (q.s.) indicated that when he said, “If it is fettered by its appetites, how can it travel to Allah (s.w.t.)?” 

Travel is rising and moving from land to another land.  Here it is moving from looking at being to witnessing the Maker of Being, or from Mulk to Malakut, or from stopping at secondary causes to seeing the Causer of causes, or from the abode of negligence to the abode of wakefulness, or from the portions of the nafs to the Rights of Allah (s.w.t.), or from the world of impurities to the world of purity, or from seeing the sensory to witnessing the meaning, or from ignorance to gnosis, or from the knowledge of certainty to the source of certainty, or from the source of certainty to the truth of certainty, or from watchfulness to witnessing, or from the station of the wayfarers to the abode of those who are firm.  Fetters are shackles, and what is meant by the appetites is all that the nafs desires and to which it inclines. 

Travel is not combined with fetters.  As long as the heart feels an inclination to something of these ephemeral goods, even if it is permitted in the shari’ah, he is shackled and fettered in its abode and does not travel to Malakut, nor do the lights of Jabarut shine on him.  So the heart’s attachment to its appetites prevents it from rising to Allah (s.w.t.) since it is busy turning to them.  If it moves swiftly, it is not safe from stumbling with them because of the fondness the nafs has for them.  That is why the great men abandoned its pleasures so that Imam az-Zarruq (q.s.) said, “Hornets’ stings on a wounded body is easier than the sting of appetites in hearts,” 

This is when the heart is attached to seeking them before obtaining them.  Otherwise, the heart is not attached to them.  It was already said that the reality of taswawwuf is that we should be with Allah (s.w.t.) without attachment.  Our shaykh used to say, “If you want to be given a share, no one with an attachment in his heart enters the world of Malakut.”  So, my brother, eradicate the roots of attachments in ourself and flee from the land of attachments and the lights of the realities will shine to us.  This is why travelling and hijrah are confirmed matters for the murid, since remaining in this sensory land is not free of sensory attachments. 

They said, “The faqir is like water.  When it remains for a long time in the same place, it changes.  If it flows, it is sweet.”  According to how much it travels in the senses, it travels in the meaning.  According to how much the vessel travels, the heart travels.  Hijrah is a sunnah of the Prophet (s.a.w.).  Since the time the Prophet (s.a.w.) emigrated, he had no rest except in journeying for jihad until Allah (s.w.t.) Opened the lands.  It was the same for the companions.  Only a few of them were remained in their homeland until the time when Allah (s.w.t.) Conquered all the lands at their hands and Guided people by them.  May Allah (s.w.t.) Give us the benefit of their Blessings.  Amin. 

When the heart travels from the abode of its appetites and is purified of the filth of its negligence, it reaches the Presence of its Lord and is Granted contemplation of His Nearness.  This why Shaykh ibn ‘Atha’illah (q.s.) said, “If it is not purified of the great impurity of its heedlessness, how can it aspire to enter the Presence of Allah (s.w.t.)?”  This is the presence of the heart with the Lord.  There are three categories: the presence of the hearts, the presence of the spirits, and the presence of the secrets.  The presence of the hearts is for the travelers, the presence of the spirits for those who are looking upwards, and the presence of the secrets for those who are firm.  Or we can say, the presence of the hearts is for the people of watchfulness, the presence of the spirits for the people of contemplation, and the presence of secrets for the people who speak directly. 

The sirr of that is that while the ruh continues to vacillate between heedlessness and presence, it is in the presence of the hearts.  When it has rest by arrival, it is called a ruh and is in the presence of the spirits.  When it is firm and purified and becomes one of the secrets of Allah, it is called a secret, sirr, and it is in the presence of the secrets, asrar.  Allah Knows best.