A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is taken from The Qur’anic Symbolism of Water , by Shaykh Siraj ad-Din Abu Bakr Martin Lings ( q.s. ).   In the Quran, the ideas of mercy and water, in particular rain, are in a sense inseparable.  With them must be included the idea of Revelation, tanzal , which means literally “a sending down.”  The Revelation and the rain are both “Sent Down” by the All-Merciful, and both are described throughout the Qur’an as “mercy,” and both are spoken of as “life-giving.”  So close is the connection of ideas that rain might even be said to be an integral part of the Revelation which it prolongs, as it were, in order that by penetrating the material world the Divine Mercy may reach the uttermost confines of Creation; and to perform the rite of ablution is to identify oneself, in the world of matter, with this wave of Mercy, and to return with it as it ebbs back towards the Principle, for purification is a return to our o...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is adapted from Shaykh Siraj ad-Din Abu Bakr Martin Lings’ ( q.s. ) Life & Work .   It was in turn adapted from Michael Fitzgerald’s “In Memoriam: Dr. Martin Lings”.   Shaykh Martin Lings ( r.a. ) was a leading member of the Traditionalist or Perennialist school and an acclaimed author, editor, translator, scholar, Arabist, and poet whose work centred on the relationship between God and man through religious doctrine, scripture, symbolism, literature, and art.   He was an accomplished metaphysician and essayist who often turned to a number of the world’s great spiritual traditions for examples, though he is most likely best known for his writings on Islam and its esoteric tradition, Sufism.   Shaykh Martin Lings ( r.a. ) was born in Lancashire, England, in 1909 and received both his BA and his MA from Oxford University in English literature.   While at Oxford, Lings began a friendship with Cliv...