THE THIRD STAGE

 

 

Then as our observer is traveling through the different ages, they enter the school of the famed Renewer of the Second Millennium, Imam ar-Rabbani Ahmad al-Faruqi47, and attend a most important lesson. The words of the Imam were as follows:

The most important result (or fruit) of all spiritual journeying is to attain complete perception of the truths of belief.

He also said:

The complete perception of a single truth of belief is preferable to a thousand wonders and spiritual pleasures.48

The Imam added:

In former times, great saints predicted that someone would arise from among the scholars of the science of theology. They predicted that he would prove all the truths of belief and Islam with rational proofs and the utmost clarity. I hope that I may be that man.

 

With that hope in mind, he taught that belief and the affirmation of Divine Unity were the foundation, substance, light and life of all human perfection. Furthermore, he taught that the hadith “An hour’s reflection is better than a year’s (supererogatory) worship,”49 concerns reflection on the truths of belief, and that silent invocation and remembrance of God is preferred in the Naqshbandi Sufi Order because it is a form of this most excellent reflection.

The traveler listens intently to all of the Imam’s teaching. Then they turned to their soul and address it as follows: “It is thus that this heroic Imam speaks. Increasing the strength of one’s belief by as much as an atom is worth more than a ton of gnosis or other forms of perfection; it is sweeter than the honey of a hundred spiritual pleasures. Also, the doubts and objections of Western philosophers which have accumulated for a thousand years against Islamic belief and the Qur’an are at present finding a way to attack the believers. They wish to shake the pillars of belief, which are the key, the source and the foundation of eternal happiness, of everlasting life and of eternal Paradise. We should therefore strengthen our belief by basing it on investigation and experience rather than on mere imitation.

So come on, let us advance! In order to bring the twenty-nine ranks of faith that we have found, each as powerful as a mountain, up to the blessed number of thirty-three, the number of the glorifications that follow each of the canonical or prescribed Prayers, and in order to reach a third mansion or stage in this realm of instruction, let us knock on the door of the maintenance of the living world by the Lord and open it with the key of In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.”  So saying, they knock imploringly on the gate of this third mansion, which is an assembly of wonders and an exhibition of marvels. They open it with the key of “In the Name of God, the All-Opening,” and thus gain entrance to the third mansion. There they see that four great and comprehensive truths were illuminating that mansion and demonstrating the truth of Divine Unity as brightly as the sun.

 

Said Nursi

47 Imam Rabbani, Ahmad Faruqi al-Sarhandi (d., 1624): The “reviver of the second millennium.” Born in Sarhand (India) and well-versed in Islamic sciences, he removed many corrupt elements from Sufism. He taught Shah Alamgir or Awrangzeb (d., 1707), who had a committee of scholars prepare the most comprehensive compendium of Hanafi Law. His work, al-Maktubat (“The Letters”) are very famous and widely known throughout the Muslim World. (Tr.)

48 Imam ar-Rabbani, al-Maktubat (“The Letters”), Letter no. 210. (Tr.)

49 al-Qurtubi, al-Jami‘ li-Ahkami’l-Qur’an, 4:314.