A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Muhyi ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Arabi ( q.s. ) wrote: “‘Keep coming on, and you shall see what I will do with you! How you underestimate my worth, And overestimate that of the Sons of Adam, Giving preference to gnostics over me! By the Almighty Power of Him Alone, I shall not allow you to circle around me!’ I came back to my senses and realised, That God Wished to Correct me. I thanked Him for this, And the affliction which I had felt vanished.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is extracted from the works of Dr. Jibril Fu’ad Haddad.    Shaykh Taqi’ ad-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Halim ibn Taymiyyah  ( r.a. ) spent the years 719 to 721 CE in jail; he was jailed again in 726 CE until his death two years later amid charges of kufr for declaring it haram to travel to visit the Prophet’s ( s.a.w. ) maqam , stating whoever does is committing a sin and an innovation.   This particular fatwa is nonsensical, and without merit.   Imam Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mardawi ( r.a. ), Shaykh Abu al-Muzhaffar ‘Awn ad-Din Yahya ibn Hubayrah ash-Shaybani al-Hanbali ( r.a. ), and others stated that the entirety of the early and late authorities in the Hanbali madzhab stipulate the desirability of visiting the grave of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) in Madina, most especially after haj , or travelling to do so.   Imam Shams ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Muflih al-Maqdisi ( r.a. ); Imam al-Mardawi ( r.a. ); an...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Muhyi ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Arabi ( q.s. ) wrote: “The House is greater than anything else apart from you, O My servant, when you adhere to it. I considered my constitution to be more excellent, Than that of the Ka’bah and her rank, And that as a place of theophany of Divine Realities, she was inferior to me. I spoke of her as of a mineral constitution, On the first level of engendered beings.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Muswlih ad-Din Abu Muhammad Sa’adi ibn ‘Abdullah ash-Shirazi ( q.s. ) wrote: “I sit on the throne of the heart; That is the style of my poverty! I am dust on my Beloved’s Path; That is my Elevated state! No need to visit the mosque for me; Your eyebrow is a prayer arch for me. Sa’di, why this pilgrim’s garb? Why, indeed, this ritual of haj ? Look at my Beloved’s Face; That is the true worshipper’s place!”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Muhyi ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Arabi ( q.s. ) said: “O Ka’bah of God, O Zamzam! How strongly you desire my friendship, but no, no! If I must get involved in a friendship with you, It is through compassion and not desire towards you. The Ka’bah is nothing other than our essence, The essence of curtains of reverential fear. The True God is not contained by heaven or earth or any word ...”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi ( q.s. ) put it: “For some, the road is from Rum; For some, from Syria; For some, from Persia; For some, from China; For some, by sea from India and Yemen … Once they have arrived at the Ka’bah, It is realised that that warfare, Was concerning the roads only, And that their goal was one.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Muhyi ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Arabi ( q.s. ) wrote, in his Tarjuman al-Ashwaq :   “My heart has become receptive of all forms: It is a pasture for gazelles, and a monastery for Christian monks, And a temple for idols and the pilgrim’s Ka’bah, And the tables of the Torah and the book of the Qur’an.”