A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Abdullah ash-Shadzili ( q.s. ) said, “I have despaired of myself benefiting myself, so how should I not despair of other than me benefiting it?   I have hopes of Allah for others besides me, so how can I not have hope for myself?   This is the alchemy and the elixir by which one obtains wealth with no poverty in it and might with no abasement in it and spending which does not run out.   It is the alchemy of the people of understanding of Allah.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   A man asked Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Abdullah ash-Shadzili ( q.s. ), “Why do I see that people esteem you when I do not see that you perform a lot of action?”   He replied, “For one year, Allah Obliged it on His Rasulullah ( s.a.w. ) and I clung to it.”   “What is it?” he asked.   He replied, “Turning from you and from your worldly things.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Abdullah ash-Shadzili ( q.s. ) said, “My Beloved Commanded me, ‘Do not move your feet except where you hope for the Reward of Allah and do not sit except where you are generally safe from disobeying Allah and do not choose for yourself other than the one who provides you with certainty.   And they are very few indeed.’”   He also said, “Do not accompany the one who prefers his nafs to you.   He is blameworthy.   Do not accompany the one who prefers you to himself.   He is rarely constant.   Rather keep the company of the one who, when he remembers, remembers Allah.   Allah Enriches by him when he is present and Represents him when he is absent.   His dzikr illuminates the hearts and his witnessing is the keys of the unseen worlds.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Sayyidina Abu Bakr ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Utsman asw-Swiddiq ( r.a. ) said to Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Abdullah ash-Shadzili ( q.s. ), in a dream, “The sign of love of this world leaving the heart is spending it when it exists and rest from it when it does not exist.   The sign of realisation of descent into the station of trust is stillness and tranquility at the changes of means.   The sign of realisation of descent into the station of gnosis is adab outwardly and inwardly, and good character with every creature.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is a brief biography of Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Abdullah ash-Shadzili ( q.s. ).   On his father’s side, he is descended from the Fatimid-Hasanid line, and on his mother’s side from the Fatimid-Husaynid line.   He was born in the year 593 AH / 1196 CE, in the mountain village of Ghumara, in the Rif area of the northern Atlas mountains of the Maghrib.   The Berber tribe which he belonged to had virtually separated itself from the rest of the Maghrib by refusing to accept Islam, which was otherwise universally followed in this region.   Shaykh Abu Madyan Shu’ayb ibn al-Husayn al-Maghribi ( q.s. ) had tried to guide this tribe to the Truth, but they had preferred to live in their state of spiritual ignorance, relying mostly upon witchcraft, magic and idols for their form of worship.   There is little recorded about the very early life of Imam Abu al-Hasan ash-Shadzili ( q.s. ), but it is assumed that whilst...