A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is adapted from Signs on the Horizons by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich.   “It is hard for an outsider to understand how deeply troubling the loss of a living shaykh is for the disciple and there is a natural human tendency to fill the immense gap left by the death of one’s guide with a comforting placeholder.  Many Sufi orders become hereditary in this way, with the son of the shaykh taking the mantle by acclamation to sustain the way.  The great awliya’ within the Darqawiyyah Habibiyyah Order had the profound integrity not to settle for what might have been reassuring and the Habibiyyah carried on for decades, surviving on the extraordinarily powerful practice and legacy of the great 20 th century shaykh .  During this period, numerous people tried to declare themselves as shaykh of the Order, but Si Fudhul and others quashed these false claims.   One of my teachers in Makkah al-Mukarramah, Shaykh I...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ajibah ( q.s. ), a wali of the Darqawi Sufi Order, commented on the quote of Shaykh Taj ad-Din Abu al-Fadhl Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Atha‘illah as-Sakandari ( q.s. ), the third in the silsilah of the Shadzili Sufi Order, when he said, “Actions are merely propped-up shapes.   Their life-breath is the presence of the secret of sincerity in them.”   Shaykh ibn ‘Ajibah ( q.s. ) explained that actions refer to physical movements or movements of the heart.   The shapes are the qualities which the mind fixes.   The ruh and the sirr are lodged in living creatures.   Here it refers to that by which ihsan is achieved in actions.   Sincerity is when the heart is devoted to the worship of the Lord, as well as its secret and core.   That is the truthfulness designated by being free of strength and might since it is only complete by it, even if it is sound without it, since sincerity negate...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is extracted from the “Letters” of Mawlay Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn al-‘Arabi ad-Darqawi ( q.s. ).   He wrote, “The ruh and the nafs are the same luminous thing from the world of light.   Allah Knows best, faqir , but it is not two different things even though it has two descriptions: purity and turbidity.   The root is purity and the branch is turbidity.   If were to you ask, ‘How is that?’ I would reply that as long as the ruh retains its purity, excellence, radiance, beauty, nobility, height and elevation, then only the name ‘ ruh ” is true for it.   When it leaves its original purity, excellence, radiance, honour, height, and elevation, and becomes turbid by leaving its homeland and relying on other than its loved ones, then it is true to call it ‘ nafs ’.   We can designate it according to its low ranks – ‘commanding evil’, ‘reproachful’, and other names, and we can also designate it ac...