The Twenty-ninth Letter

 

Ninth section: Nine clarifications

 

In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.

Behold, God’s friends—there shall be no fear on them, nor will they grieve. (10:62)

 

(This section comprises nine clarifications about attaining the rank of being God’s friend or sainthood.)

 

FIRST CLARIFICATION: Sufism is a lovely, light-giving, and spiritual truth known under various terms: tariqa (spiritual order or way), sainthood (being God’s friend), initiation, and following a spiritual order or way. Truth-seeking scholars among the people of spiritual pleasure and discovery have written thousands of volumes on this sacred truth, and have taught it to Muslims. May God reward them! I show, in accordance with the present context, a few drops from that ocean of information.

QUESTION: What is Sufism?

ANSWER: Sufism is the name of the spiritual way by which initiates seek knowledge of God and attain full perception of the truths of belief and the Qur’an. This way elevates initiates, at the end of the spiritual journeying and under the auspices of the Prophet’s Ascension, to the rank of the perfect person (al-insan al-kamil).

Since each person is an all-comprehensive index of the universe, each person’s heart is like an immaterial map of thousands of worlds. Science shows that each person’s mind is like a telecommunications center, an immaterial center of the universe, and thus each person’s heart, as explained by countless saints, receives innumerable universal truths and is also their seed.

Given this and the fact that, like a seed, the human heart and mind contain the members of a “huge tree,” the wheels and other parts of an eternal and splendid machine, the Creator of this heart willed that it should operate and flourish by putting its potentials into practice. As a result the heart, like the intellect, will work. The most practical and important means to make it work is repeating God’s Names while journeying toward sainthood and seeking to attain the truths of belief.

SECOND CLARIFICATION: The two means of this spiritual journeying are repeating God’s Names and reflection, both of which result in countless benefits in both worlds. Apart from these benefits, everyone seeks consolation or relief amidst life’s turbulence and burdensome responsibilities, as well as intimacy to relieve the surrounding solitude and gloom. Modern social gatherings satisfy these needs for very few people, but only in a heedless and intoxicating way.

Eighty percent of people lack true consolation and relief. They receive no relief from such social gatherings, for modern attitudes and lifestyles, the struggle to make a living, illness, affliction, old age, and many other factors lead them to turn their thoughts more to the other world. They find true consolation, contentment, and friendship by making their hearts work through reflection, remembering God, and repeating His Names. By turning to their inner selves for intimacy and understanding that God’s creatures are everywhere, they are never alone. Belief in and remembrance of God lead them to make friends with every creature and to live a pleasant, contented life. The feeling of always being in the company of God, their Creator and Provider, gives them the greatest pleasure, removes all gloom and solitude, and so causes them to thank God.

THIRD CLARIFICATION: Sainthood proves Divine Messengership, and the way or spiritual order (tariqa) testifies to the Sharia. Saints experience the truths of belief communicated by the Messenger with the certainty of seeing, and confirm them through the witnessing of their hearts and the spiritual pleasure they derive. Such confirmation proves the truth of Divine Messengership.

Sufis are convinced, through the pleasure and enlightenment received and the ability of spiritual discovery acquired, that the Sharia’s commands and principles are of Divine origin and true. As sainthood and Sufism prove the truth of Messengership and the Sharia, they also express Islam’s perfections, are among the sources of its light, means for humanity’s spiritual progress, and sources of enlightenment due to their connection with Islam.

Despite this great truth, some deviant sects deny it. Being deprived of Sufism’s lights, they want to deprive others of them. Unfortunately, certain superficial or literalist scholars among the Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama‘a,  as well as some heedless politicians, are trying to close down and destroy this great treasury, and dry up this pure source of the water of life, due to some Sufis’ abuses and mistakes.

But every order or system has its faults! If incompetent and unqualified people are admitted, some abuse will occur. But God Almighty will show His Lordship’s justice in the Hereafter by judging what people have done. If one’s good (evil) deeds weigh more, God Almighty will reward (punish) him or her. Further, He judges good and evil deeds according to quality, not quantity. Thus one good deed could outweigh 1,000 evil ones and cause them to be forgiven.

Since this is the way of Divine Justice, Sufism should not be condemned because a few of its members abuse it. Also, following a tariqa or a spiritual way according to the Sunna is always greater than its evils. A most decisive proof of this is that Sufis preserve their belief at the most critical times when the people of misguidance attack all religious values.

Even ordinary, sincere Sufis, due to the spiritual pleasure they receive in tariqa and their love for saints, preserve their belief more than those with superficial scientific knowledge of Islam. They may commit some major sins, but they never enter unbelief or join heretics. Nothing can make them refute a chain of spiritual guides whom they accept with strong love and firm conviction as the spiritual poles of the world. Thus they always maintain their trust in them and never become unbelievers. But in the present circumstances, it is hard for anyone, even if they are great truth-seeking scholars, to protect themselves against the intrigues of present-day unbelievers if they have no connection with a spiritual way and their hearts are not working.

Furthermore, Sufism must not be condemned because of the evils of some self-proclaimed orders or some schools that have broken with the sphere of piety and even of Islam. Apart from its very significant religious, spiritual, and Hereafter-related fruits, Sufism always has exerted a strong influence on developing and then causing the flourishing sacred bond of Muslim unity.

It also is one of the three most important and firmest strongholds of Islam against the attacks of unbelief and Christian politics. The power that protected Istanbul, the Caliphate’s center, for 500 years against a large world of Christianity lies in the lights of monotheism diffused from 500 places in Istanbul and, as a point of support for believers, in the strength of belief of those invoking God in the dervish lodges behind mosques, and their going into rapture with the spiritual pleasure coming from knowledge of God.

So, O senseless ones claiming national zeal and pretenders to Turkish nationalism, what evils does Sufism have that you can ignore its benefits to the nation’s social life!

FOURTH CLARIFICATION: The way of sainthood is paradoxical: easy and difficult, short and long, precious and desirable yet risky, broad and narrow. Such paradoxes sometimes cause adherents to drown or lose their way. Sometimes people turn back and cause others to deviate.

Sufis can follow either of two ways: travelling in the inner world or in the outer world. Members of the first group begin from the carnal self and, without moving toward the outer world, head straight for the heart. They pierce and smash egotism and self-conceit and, by making a way through the heart, reach the truth. Then they set off in the outer world, where they finish their travel quickly. They witness the truth that they have seen in the inner world in the outer world as well. Most spiritual orders that invoke God’s Names silently follow this way. Such travelers must break their egotism and self-conceit, abandon whims and fancies, and destroy the carnal self.

The other travelers start from the outer world and, after observing the manifestations of God’s Names and Attributes in all objects, enter the inner world. In their hearts, they witness to some extent the same lights that they observed in the outer world and follow the quickest way into the heart. They attain their goal only after perceiving that the heart is the mirror of God, the Eternally-Besought-of-All.

If followers of the first way cannot destroy their carnal selves, abandon whim and fancy, and break egotism and self-conceit, they abandon thanksgiving for self-pride and then vanity. If they are in a state of ecstatic love or spiritually intoxicated because of feeling attracted by God, they make exaggerated claims, such as disregarding God’s threats and chastisement, belittling Paradise, or seeing their own rank as above everybody else’s. And so they harm themselves and others.

For example, boastful lieutenants enraptured with the pleasure of their rank may see themselves as marshals and thereby confuse the two spheres of command. Likewise, the sun’s reflection in a small mirror may sometimes be regarded as the same as the sun’s magnificent reflection on the sea’s surface. Just so, many saints regard and even see themselves as superior to those who are, in reality, far superior to them, just like flies who consider themselves superior to peacocks.

I once saw an initiate who, awakened to some truths and feeling some slight degree of sainthood’s mystery within him, considered himself to be and assumed the attitude of the greatest Spiritual Pole of the world. I told him:

Brother! The office of kingdom has relations with and authority over all offices of the state, from that of the prime minister down to that of a district governor. Thus every officer feels connected to him. The rank of a spiritual pole has different manifestations or reflections in countless ranks of sainthood. Each rank also has many forms of manifestation. You see a Spiritual Pole’s greatest rank reflected in your rank and are deceived. What you see may be true, but your judgment is wrong. For a fly, a bowl of water is like a small sea.

By God’s Will, he came to his senses and escaped a great danger.

 

I also have met several people who consider themselves a kind of Mahdi, even the greatest Mahdi promised for the Last Days. They are not liars or deceivers, just deluded insofar as they regard their vision as the ultimate truth. There are as many degrees of the Divine Names’ manifestation as the number of objects in the universe, from God’s Greatest Throne down to a minute particle on Earth. The objects receiving this manifestation have as many different degrees as their number. This is also the case with sainthood’s ranks.

What causes deception or confusion is this: Some ranks of sainthood are connected with the Mahdi’s function and are related to the greatest Spiritual Pole and even to Khadr. Likewise, there are ranks related to famous saints and thereby called after them, such as the rank of Khadr, the rank of Uways, and the rank of the Mahdi.

Thus some who receive a few manifestations of such ranks think that they own that rank, that they are Khadr, the Mahdi, or the greatest Spiritual Pole of the time. If they break their egotism and do not pursue any spiritual position, they cannot be condemned for such assertions, and their excessive claims are to be counted as ecstatic utterances (shathiyat). But if they seek a spiritual position to satisfy their self-conceit and so turn from thanking God to self-pride, ultimately they will lapse into vanity and deviation because they will begin to consider themselves equal to the greater saints. And since a soul, however self-conceited it may be, is aware of its faults, their good opinion of those saints causes them to imagine them to be faulty like themselves. Even their respect for the Prophets may diminish.

Those captivated by such a state should judge according to the Sharia. They should follow the guiding principles laid down by the scholars of religious methodology, as well as the instructions of such saints of meticulous research and truth-seeking as Imam Ghazzali and Imam Rabbani. Also, they should reproach their carnal selves continually, ascribing to them nothing but defect, helplessness, and poverty. The excessive and exaggerated claims of those in such a state originate from self-love, for love prevents the lover from discerning the beloved’s defects. Thus their self-love causes them to imagine their carnal souls or selfhood as precious and brilliant as a diamond, while they really are as valueless and insignificant as glass.

A most grievous yet common mistake while in this state is to imagine that the meanings inspired in them are “words of God,” and therefore revealed verses. This causes them to belittle the Divine Revelation’s most sacred and exalted rank, for all inspiration from that coming to honeybees to that coming to believers and angels is some sort of God’s words. But since God’s Speech comes through 70,000 veils according to the receiver’s capacity, it has innumerable manifestations and degrees of reception. Thus such inspirations cannot be called “revealed verses,” for that description is only for the Qur’an’s light-diffusing sentences, the clearest and most illustrious embodiment and proper name of the Divine Word and Revelation.

As explained and proved in the Twelfth, Twenty-fifth, and Thirty-first Words, what occurs to such people’s hearts is, when compared to the sun of the Qur’an (God’s direct Word), like the sun’s shadowy and obscure reflections in a colored mirror when compared to the sun. Although the reflections in each mirror are rightly attributed to the sun and have some relation with it, Earth will never gravitate to or revolve around those mirrors.

FIFTH CLARIFICATION: One important Sufi school is that of the Unity of Being. This doctrine almost denies the universe’s essential existence in the name of the Necessarily Existent Being, and even regards apparently existing creatures as imagined mirrors reflecting the Divine Names’ manifestations. This school is based on an important truth: In the eyes of saints of very high ranks and ecstasies, and due to their strong belief in and firm conviction of the Necessarily Existent Being’s existence, the existence of contingent beings is so insignificant that they deny the existence of all creatures, which seem no more than mere illusions, in the name of God.

This doctrine has certain risks, the foremost being: There are six fundamentals of belief: Belief in God, the Day of Judgment, angels, Prophets, Divine Scriptures, and Divine Destiny. Each of these requires the existence of contingencies. As these fundamentals are substantial, they cannot be based on illusion or imagination. Thus saints belonging to this school should not act according to its requirements when returning to the world of realities from a state of spiritual intoxication. Being based on the experiences of the heart, and on spiritual pleasure and ecstasy, this school should not be regarded as rational or scientific.

In addition, such experiences and pleasures should not be mentioned in this world of realities, for this school is not in accordance with the intellectual principles, scientific laws, and theological rules coming from the Qur’an and the Sunna. As the Four Rightly-Guided Caliphs, and the greatest jurists and righteous scholars of Islam’s early centuries, did not mention or suggest it, it cannot be the most exalted school of Sufism. Although it is considerably exalted, it has defects. It is important but risky, difficult but very pleasant. Those who enter it for its pleasures do not like to leave it and, if they are haughty, suppose it to have the highest rank.

One important risk is as follows: The way envisioned by the Unity of Being is a sound way based on direct experience of some elite among exalted saints who, in a state of absolute spiritual intoxication, transcend causality, renounce everything except God, and have nothing to do with contingency. But to offer it as a way to those immersed in causality and fond of this world, who want to cling to material and natural philosophy, would cause them to drown in the swamp of materialism and naturalism. In other words, it would make them deviate from the truth. Those who love this world and are enveloped within causality wish to give a kind of permanence to this transient world. Unwilling to renounce the beloved (the world), they use this doctrine to imagine an unimagined eternity for this world, even going so far as to deny God in the world’s name.

Materialism is now so widespread that some people ascribe everything to matter. Even if some distinguished believers may assert the Unity of Being on the grounds of the insignificance of material existence, it is highly probable that materialists may adopt this concept on matter’s behalf, in the form of monism, naturalism, or pantheism, although the Unity of Being is the school furthest removed from such things. Its adherents are so deeply absorbed in Divine Existence through their strong belief that they deny the universe’s existence on its behalf, whereas materialists attribute existence exclusively to matter and deny God in the universe’s name. How far are the latter from the former!

SIXTH CLARIFICATION: There are three points to be made here, as follows:

FIRST POINT: The most beautiful, straightest, and brightest way of sainthood is following the Sunna and obeying the Sharia as closely as possible. Such adherence transforms one’s ordinary deeds, actions, and natural movements into a form of worship. It reminds people of the Sunna and the Sharia, and causes them thereby to think of the Prophet, which in turn calls God Almighty to mind. This remembrance gives a kind of peace and contentment. Thus one’s whole life can be counted as spent in continuous worship. In addition to being the broadest highway, it is the way of the Companions and their righteous followers, who truly represented the succession to the Prophetic mission (the greatest sainthood).

SECOND POINT: The most important basis of sainthood and Sufism is sincerity (purity of intention), for this saves one from any implicit form of associating partners with God. Whoever has not acquired sincerity cannot travel in those ways. And the most direct means, the most effective and penetrating power in those ways, is love. Lovers do not try to find fault with their beloveds and become blind to their beloveds’ defects, for they consider even weak indications of their beloveds’ perfection as decisive proofs. They always side with their beloveds.

Those who direct themselves to knowledge of God through love ignore all objections and doubts. Even if thousands of devils come together, they cannot invalidate even the least indication of their True Beloved’s (God) perfection. Without love, they would have to struggle against the objections coming from their own carnal selves and satanic and human devils. To save themselves, they must have heroic resistance and firmness, strong belief, and careful vision and discernment.

Due to this, love of God originating in knowledge of God is the most important “ferment” in all steps to sainthood, for it changes initiates, elevates them to higher ranks, and cures all spiritual illnesses. This way does have a risk, however: Lovers may turn from complete modesty and supplicating God to assuming airs and graces and behaving in a way to show themselves as valued and worthy of God’s love.

In short, they may not preserve equity. When they love someone other than God, they may love them for their personal perfections and spiritual grace, not on account of God or their function as His Names’ mirrors. For lovers, such love becomes a poison and increases their spiritual illness. However perfect and great those other people may be, any love that is not in the name of God and His Prophet conceals the love of God. But if such a love is cherished on account of or in the name of God, it leads lovers to the love of God, which then becomes a manifestation of Divine love.

THIRD POINT: This world is the abode of wisdom and service, not of wages and reward. Everything happens in accordance with God’s Wisdom, and people will be rewarded in the Hereafter for their good deeds and services. Thus the fruits of good deeds done for God’s good pleasure should not be sought here. If they are given, they should be accepted with sorrow, for it is unreasonable to use up here the fruits that will be replaced in Paradise right after they are eaten. It is like exchanging a lamp giving permanent light for one that is extinguished in a minute.

Saints welcome hardship, misfortune, trouble, and service by saying: “Praise be to God in all circumstances and conditions.” If they make spiritual discoveries, work wonders, and receive spiritual pleasures and lights, they accept them as Divine favors and try to hide them. Staying humble, they increase their thanksgiving and worship in return. Many saints even ask God to take those favors back so that their sincerity and pure intention will not be adulterated. Indeed, a most significant Divine kindness or favor for a person approved by God is that He does not make them feel His favors. This prevents them from abandoning supplication and thankfulness for self-pride, putting on airs and graces, and behaving affectedly.

If those who seek sainthood through Sufism pursue and welcome spiritual pleasure and wonders, which are among sainthood’s insignificant fruits, they eventually reduce their permanent fruits in Paradise and lose their purity of intention and sainthood.

SEVENTH CLARIFICATION: Four subtleties are reflected upon here, as follows:

FIRST SUBTLETY: The Sharia, that collection of Divine religious principles, commands, and prohibitions, is the result of the direct Divine address to humanity through the Prophet and from the point of His absolute Oneness and Lordship. Therefore, all tariqa rules and ranks, including the greatest, are parts of the Sharia. All tariqas are means to reach the Sharia’s truths, and all results are included in the Sharia’s confirmations.

Unlike the misconceptions of some Sufis, the Sharia is not a mere outer covering with Sufism being the inner part and haqiqa (the truth) the kernel or essence. The Sharia flourishes according to the person’s level, for it contains all levels suitable to those who understand and practice it. People increase their levels by understanding, practicing, and tasting it more perfectly. So do not think that the ordinary people’s understanding and practice of Islam is the Sharia, and consider the saints’ practice of the Sharia as Sufism and haqiqa. In essence, Sufism is a discipline or technique that allows people to practice the Sharia in a better way. It has numerous degrees of understanding and practice.

The most advanced Sufis are the most devoted, attached, and obedient to the Sharia. They regard even the Prophet’s slightest command as something to be obeyed absolutely and perform it with great care. This is because to whatever degree Revelation is higher than inspiration, the Sharia’s rules for good manners (fruits of Divine Revelation) is that much higher and more important than the tariqa’s good manners (products of inspiration). Thus a tariqa’s most important fundamental is following the Sunna.

SECOND SUBTLETY: Sufism is only a means. If it is taken as the aim or end, the Sharia’s commands and the Sunna’s principles are reduced to mere ceremonies for outward performance, and the heart is turned directly toward Sufism. Such people attach more importance to reciting God’s Names in dervish circles than to performing the daily prescribed prayers, concentrate more on daily supererogatory recitations than on religious obligations, and are more careful to avoid opposing Sufism’s good manners than to the major sins.

Since all religious obligations are among the Sharia’s established commands, not all of the tariqa’s daily supererogatory recitations can compensate for a single one of them even. The tariqa’s recitations and good manners are only a means of consolation for being unable to derive true pleasure from religious obligations, not the real source of that pleasure. Thus recitations and manners in the Sufi lodge are means for the pleasure and exact performance of prescribed prayers in the mosque. Those who perform the prescribed prayer in the mosque as if it were a formality and then run to the lodge to get true pleasure and attain spiritual perfection are in loss and deviance.

THIRD SUBTLETY: Is Sufism possible outside the Sunna and the Sharia? Answer: Yes and no. It is possible, for some perfect saints have been executed with the sword of the Sharia. It is impossible, for truth-seeking scholars of sainthood agree with Sa’di al-Shirazi: “Sa’di, it is inconceivable for one who does not follow the way of the Messenger to find the truth’s lights.” As the Messenger is the Seal of the Prophets and the addressee of God on humanity’s behalf, humanity must follow his broad highway and remain under his flag.

On the other hand, people in trance, ecstasy, or spiritual absorption are not considered responsible for disobeying the Sharia. People are not asked to account for their opposition to religious commands when under the influence of senses or faculties that their willpower and reason cannot control. Thus ecstatic saints do not lose their sainthood while in such states. However, they should not openly deny, condemn, or debase Islam or the Sharia in any way. Rather, they should admit the prescribed acts’ truth, even if they ignore them. If they deny or contradict the established truths of belief and the Sharia even while in such a state, they have gone astray.

In short, Sufis outside the Sharia’s sphere fall into two categories. The first consists of those overcome by trance or ecstasy, spiritual absorption and intoxication, or under the influence of senses or faculties that cannot be controlled by reason and willpower. Such people leave the Sharia unintentionally. Truth-seeking scholars of sainthood have judged that there can be some great saints as temporarily outside of the Sharia and even of Islam. But they are still saints, for they do not intentionally deny or contradict any commandment conveyed by the Prophet, and because any neglect comes from their ignorance or spiritual intoxication, trance and ecstasy.

The second comprises those who, fascinated by Sufism’s splendid pleasures, consider the Sharia’s truths tasteless and mere ceremonies, and so become indifferent to them. Considering the Sharia a superficial covering and being content with what they find in Sufism, they consider the latter as the real object and so abandon the Sharia. The “sober” ones among those are held responsible for their un-Islamic actions, and may fall to the lowest level and are ridiculed even by Satan.

FOURTH SUBTLETY: The Muslim community approves of some members of deviant sects, and yet rejects others who seem to have the same standing. For example, the meticulous scholars of the Ahl al-Sunna do not consider the radical Mu‘tazili Zamakhshari a heretic or unbeliever, and yet reject such Mu‘tazili leaders as Abu ‘Ali Jubba‘i despite their less severe opposition to the Ahl al-Sunna. This perplexed me for a long time.

Finally, God’s grace allowed me to understand that Zamakhshari’s objections were due to his love of and devotion to truth. That is, he sided with the Mu‘tazilis because he thought that God could be held free from defect by attributing to animate beings themselves the function of creating or giving external existence to their acts. Based on the importance he attached to affirming God’s lack of defect, he rejected the Ahl al-Sunna’s principle on creating the acts of animate beings. But the Ahl al-Sunna rejected those Mu‘tazili leaders who became Mu’tazili not because of attachment to the truth but because they could not perceive the Ahl al-Sunna’s exalted principles and were too narrow-minded to understand the comprehensive rules they follow to establishing those principles.

Thus, Sufis outside the Sunna and opposed to various secondary Sharia commands can be divided into two groups. The first group is indifferent to the Sharia’s secondary commands, whose taste they cannot perceive, because just as Zamakhshari is attached to truth, they are attached to their way with a pure intention and are overcome by its resulting pleasures. The other group considers such commands inferior to Sufism’s principles, because they can neither comprehend them nor experience their profound pleasure.

EIGHTH CLARIFICATION: I now explain eight dangers that a Sufi initiate may face, as follows:

First danger: Some initiates who do not follow the Prophet’s Sunna strictly may prefer sainthood to Prophethood. The Twenty-fourth and Thirty-first Words prove that Prophethood is far higher than and superior to sainthood.

Second danger: They might regard some saints of excessive views as superior to the Companions and even as equal to the Prophets. The Twelfth and Twenty-seventh Words, and The Twenty-seventh Word’s Addendum, prove the Companions’ extremely high rank, which comes from companionship with the Prophet. Also, a saint can never attain the rank of a Prophet.

Third danger: Some fanatical Sufis prefer the tariqa’s daily recitations and secondary principles over those of the Sunna, and even abandon the Sunna in favor of the tariqa’s recitations. As proved in several treatises of The Words and proclaimed by such truth-seeking scholars of sainthood as Imam Ghazzali and Imam Rabbani, the reward or degree acquired by observing one religious obligation is higher than 1,000 Sunna commands. Thus, one practice of the Sunna is preferable to 1,000 practices of tariqa.

Fourth danger: Some excessive followers consider inspiration and Divine Revelation as equal. Some treatises, mainly the Twelfth and Twenty-fifth Words, prove that Divine Revelation is incomparably higher and more comprehensive and sacred than inspiration.

Fifth danger: Some self-proclaimed Sufis, unaware of Sufism’s truth, become engrossed in the spiritual pleasure, enlightenment, and wonder-working granted (without being desired) to followers to reinforce the weak, encourage those lacking in zeal, and lighten the tedium and troubles that may come from acts of worship. They gradually prefer those over acts of worship, daily recitations, and service. However, as stated above and proved in several treatises of The Words, this world is the realm of serving and not of receiving wages. Those who demand their wages here reduce the everlasting fruits of Paradise to the dying, transient fruits of this life. They like permanence in this limited and transient world, and cannot look forward to death and what is beyond it. They love the life of this world in one respect, for they find in it a manifestation of the Hereafter.

Sixth danger: Some initiates who are not people of verification and truth confuse sainthood’s real and universal ranks with their particular examples and shadows. The Twenty-fourth and other Words prove that the sun is multiplied through its reflections, which, despite having light and heat like the sun itself, are very faint in comparison with their origin. The ranks of Prophets and great saints also have shadows and reflections. When initiates enter or receive some of these, they see themselves as greater than the greatest saints and even the Prophets. To avoid this, one must always use the essentials of belief and the Sharia’s fundamentals as guiding principles and condemn any visions or experiences that oppose them.

Seventh danger: Some people of enthusiasm and spiritual pleasure prefer vanity, airs, and graces, and desire to gain people’s love and become a resort for them. They prefer all of this to giving thanks, entreating and supplicating God, and being indifferent to people’s love and attention. Whereas, the greatest spiritual rank is servanthood, and Prophet Muhammad is the most beloved in God’s sight because he was the most advanced in servanthood to God. Such servanthood is founded upon thankfulness, entreaty, supplication, pious reverence, perception of human poverty and helplessness, and indifference to people’s belongings, love, and attention. Although some great saints sometimes displayed the defects mentioned before God, but unintentionally and for a temporary period, they are not to be followed intentionally in this matter. They are not guides in this respect, even though, in general terms, they were guided.

Eighth danger: Some selfish and impatient initiates want to enjoy sainthood’s fruits here, even though these are for the Hereafter. And this despite, as proclaimed in verses like, The life of this world is but a transient enjoyment of delusion (3:185), and proved decisively in several parts of The Words, one fruit of the Permanent World is preferable to 1,000 orchards of this temporary one. Those blessed fruits should not be eaten here. If they are granted without our desiring them, we should thank God and consider them a Divine grace to encourage us, not a reward.

Ninth clarification: I briefly cite nine of Sufism’s many fruits and benefits, as follows:

First benefit: By following the Sufi path correctly, one attains certain degree of perception of the truths of belief and is favored with their manifestations to the degree of certainty of seeing. Such perception is a key to and a means of obtaining eternal treasures in the eternal world of happiness.

Second benefit: Sufism allows the heart, our center and spring, to work and thereby directs the other human faculties to their creative functions. This enables one to attain true humanity.

Third benefit: Sufism enables believers to join a tariqa and become friends of the saints following it on their way to the Intermediate World and the Hereafter. This relieves believers of solitude and lets them benefit from the saints’ company in this world and the intermediate worlds. Believers also regard each spiritual master as a support and strong proof against doubt and, by relying on the saints’ agreement on the principles of belief, avoid misguidance.

Fourth benefit: By experiencing the pleasure of knowing God via belief, and love of God coming from the knowledge of Him, believers are relieved of solitude and loneliness. As explained in The Words, happiness in both worlds, pleasure without sorrow, and communion without loneliness lie in the truth of beliefs and the Islamic way of life. As stated in The Second Word, belief bears the seed of a Tuba tree of Paradise, and that seed germinates and grows through the tariqa’s training.

Fifth benefit: Sufism enables believers to feel inwardly the truths contained in religious duties. The resulting spiritual alertness and remembrance of God causes them to perform those duties willingly and enthusiastically, instead of like slaves forced to do so.

Sixth benefit: Sufism enables believers to attain the station of reliance on and absolute submission to God, and the rank of being approved and loved by Him. These are the means for true pleasure and consolation without grief, and familiarity and communion without loneliness and separation.

Seventh benefit: Sufism enables people to achieve a sincere and pure intention, which protects them from disguised association of partners with God and such degrading attitudes as show and pretence. Through the tariqa’s unique spiritual operations, believers purify themselves from the dangers caused by egotism and the carnal self.

Eighth benefit: Through the reflective thought of the mind and remembrance of God by the heart, tariqa serves believers to acquire spiritual peace, awareness of God’s ever presence, and sound intentions. This helps them to transform everyday acts into acts of worship, and ordinary dealings and transactions into deeds related to the Hereafter. Thus believers use the capital of their present life to produce innumerable seeds for their eternal life.

Ninth benefit: Through this journey of the heart and the constant struggle against Satan and the carnal self, and via the resulting spiritual progress attained, believers strive for perfection. By becoming true believers and perfect Muslims (attaining the truth or essence of belief and Islam), they become true servants of God, His addressees and friends, and mirrors reflecting His Names and Attributes. Showing that they are the best pattern of creation, they prove humanity’s superiority to the angels. By flying through the highest ranks of humanity with the Islamic wings of belief and practice, they gain or even experience eternal happiness while in this world.

Glory be to You, we have no knowledge save what You have taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

O God, bestow blessings and peace on our master Muhammad, the Greatest Saint of Helping for all ages and the Mightiest Pole of Sainthood for all times, the magnificence of whose sainthood and the degree of whose being beloved by God were manifested in his Ascension, and in the shadow of whose Ascension are contained all forms and degrees of sainthood, and on his Family and Companions. Amen. All praise be to God, Lord of all the Worlds.

Said Nursi