In the language of Sufism, sakr (intoxication) means that an initiate is enraptured by the rays of the manifestations of God’s “Facial” Light. His or her returning to his or her former, normal state is sahw (sobriety). These two terms are usually used together as sahw u sakr.

There is a relation between intoxication and absence. If the inner world of seekers after the Ultimate Truth who feel intoxication is not satisfied with the Divine gifts, then they lack something in intoxication, and suffer irregular tides with respect to the state of absence. It is coloring, rather than self-possession, which is witnessed in their actions. For this reason, such seekers should be regarded as those who have perhaps feigned intoxication rather than being actually intoxicated. However, it sometimes occurs that the gifts come in showers and invade the whole being, with the result that then they do become fully intoxicated.

Intoxication sometimes arises from a strong belief, a considerable knowledge of God, and feeling fear and awe in a balanced way, making itself felt in a broader sense. As for the degree of intoxication which is felt by those who have advanced further on the way and who have approached nearer to God, whenever such travelers are honored with the manifestation of the Divine “Facial” Light or with the vision of the “Face” beyond all concepts of modality, they immediately become intoxicated. The spirit overflows with zeal and joy and the heart feels excessive excitement. This is particular to people of ecstasy.

Sobriety means that the intoxicated ones return to their former, normal state. Like intoxication, sobriety is also an undeniable part of the journeying toward the Almighty. Whenever the eternal King of truth invades the very being of the intoxicated lovers of the Ultimate Truth, who spend their lives immersed in spiritual pleasures in the valleys of absence, they feel as if they have immediately fallen into an ocean and have vanished like a drop into the world of feelings, or that they have been burnt away like a dried, flammable object and that their nature has changed. Furthermore, their ways and bridges of sensing are demolished one after another and He alone can be felt everywhere and in everything. There are many who see a relation between such a state and what is meant in the verse (7:143): The moment His Lord manifested His glorious majesty to the mountain, He made it crumble to dust, and Moses fell down in a faint. Just as the mountain was rendered dust, despite its immensity, and just as Prophet Moses, upon him be peace, fell down in a swoon, despite his being one of the five greatest Messengers of God, people of ecstasy feel as if they have changed their nature, they take up different attitudes, act as if intoxicated and utter words that suggest intoxication:

O cup-bearer, pour wine into the cup, it is time to break the fast;
Restore this ruin; it is time to display the favor we receive.
(M. Lutfi)

This day Nasimi is intoxicated with the grace of the cup-bearer;
I have always seen Mustafa in the wine which intoxicates me.
(Nasimi[1])

There are many other words uttered concerning intoxication, but it is beyond the scope of this book to cite them all. Only consider that the famous Hafiz ash-Shirazi begins his Diwan with the verse, Beware, O cup-bearer, bring a cup and pass it around!

Intoxication is a state in which one is enraptured with pleasures; of sobriety the main characteristics are knowledge and self-possession. A traveler is in waves of unintended, unpremeditated joy and pleasures in the state of intoxication, while in sobriety, he or she is conscious, self-possessed, and makes deliberate efforts to feel the All-Holy, Ultimate Truth.

Some consider intoxication to be when a heart boils with extraordinary joy and excitement in the moment when the person feels deeply the All-Beloved. We may interpret this state as the human self being immersed in joy and pleasures in the face of the gifts coming from the Unseen World or as an initiate losing him or herself, being overpowered by love. If the human self gets intoxicated because of immersion in joy and pleasures, this is regarded as a natural state of intoxication which an initiate gets into. If love drives the person into intoxication, this is the state of intoxication into which God Himself draws him or her. However, whatever the reason for intoxication, the traveler to the Ultimate Truth lives wonder-struck and acts in tides of zeal and joy. As seekers deepen in intoxication, they begin to wander in the valleys of wonder and astonishment. Sometimes their will-power may even break down, with the result that they begin to feel as if they were a shadow of the Light of His Existence. Those who have reached this point are called the “willed ones.” Their finite attributes are replaced by the manifestations of the Attributes of the All-Permanent, and they become a polished mirror of the fact that he sees by Me.[2]

Indicating this highest point, it is said in Thamaratu’l-Fuad (“The Fruits of the Heart”):

My voice, which sings like a nightingale,
has been made to speak by Him;
My eyes, which see, see by Him,
and I have heard speech from Him.
He has favored me with speech, with which
He has brought mysteries to light.
By the all-brilliant Light of God, my heart
has been made extremely bright,
And by the light of Muhammad,
I have become one with a pleasant heart.

Some have disapproved the use of the word intoxication for a spiritual state as it celebrates a concept that is scorned by both reason and the Shari‘a. But intoxication, which we can describe as the state of losing oneself due to the depth of love and ecstasy, is a metaphor used to express being exposed to or being favored with the rays or gifts of the Almighty which enrapture. Initiates enraptured by these gifts or rays cannot distinguish anything because of the depth of the waves of joy and pleasure in which they are drowning. In a hadith concerning repentance, God’s Messenger, who is the most advanced in reasoning and sensibility, tells us that a man of the desert expresses the excessive joy he feels with the words coming from his mouth unintentionally: “O God! You are my servant and I am Your Lord.”[3] This may be a good example of what may happen within the ecstasies that one experiences due to being favored by the Almighty’s stream of gifts.

There have been numerous people overpowered by this state, who burn with love and yearning. With his words, “O singer, play the instrument, for tonight I am intoxicated!”, Muhammed Lutfi Efendi, taking advantage of the permissibility of metaphors, declares nothing more than the joy and zeal of a lover.

As it has been to date, many travelers to the Ultimate Truth will from now on murmur the same things each in their own style in the face of the Divine lights, colors and forms that they observe everywhere. In fact, when a heart falls in love with the Eternally Beloved One and is invaded by ecstasies, and in its conscience feels His company, only those who have Prophetic insight and resolution can save themselves from confusion. Other faithful lovers, who dive deep into the cataracts of love, (or who flow abundantly like a river swelling with rains,) will sometimes overflow their limits; they will let themselves into the huge waves of love due to the rejoicing originating in feeling in His company, and always live in wonder, uttering “He!”

The feeling of absence that a traveler to the Ultimate Truth has during intoxication is expressed by “He!” Although some suggest confusion, the following verses are beautiful in expressing this:

The lights of my eyes are He, and the direction for my reason is He;
my tongue always utters He, and I sigh and groan with He.
My heart goes on an excursion in He, the love of my soul is He.
Those who are lovers and intoxicated are always with He.
My soul has sacrificed itself in the way of its Beloved,
its union is with He, its parting is with He;
and its cure, as well as its afflictions, is He.

Sobriety is the condition when one favored with knowledge of God comes to after having gone into an absence of feelings and consciousness, or, as with the Prophets, when one spends a lifetime in wakefulness and consciousness. It is the opposite of intoxication. The following couplet of Tokadizade Şekip[4] is worth quoting in this respect:

The people of peace intoxicated with intimacy in Your Presence,
do not want to exchange their rapture with sobriety.

Intoxication is a state, while sobriety is a station and is more objective, secure, and straightforward when compared to intoxication. While intoxication comes from a subjective consideration of the Ultimate Truth, sobriety is based on the consideration of the All-Exalted, Majestic Being known by His Names and outlined by His Attributes and Whose Essence cannot be perceived. From another perspective, an initiate is out of his or her senses when in a state of intoxication, but is sensible in sobriety. Intoxication suggests “self-annihilation in God,” but sobriety implies “subsistence by God,” which is subsistence by His Subsistence and is defined as “subsistence by God and being in His company.”

Some prefer intoxication to sobriety, yet this is the view of the intoxicated when overpowered by the state or induced by traveling through the valleys of coloring. There is absence in intoxication and in sobriety there is peace and rest. Sobriety is a few steps higher than intoxication. Intoxication means being overpowered by state; it is accompanied by coloring, and is the way of some saints, while sobriety depends on consciousness, is accompanied by self-possession, and is the way of the Prophets and the purified scholars. The Qur’an declares (15:99): Worship your Lord until certainty, which is bound to come, comes to you. An approach to this Qur’anic declaration is: “Continue on the way to God until you are fully awakened by death to the truth of the belief’s pillars, for traveling toward the Infinite One is endless.”

In addition, sobriety is closely connected with the consideration of life and requires strong will-power. While in intoxication, the considerations of one’s feeling annihilated in (God’s) Existence and one’s feeling annihilated in the Witnessed or in His manifestations sometimes keep the will-power under pressure, there is in sobriety special assistance and protection that come from the company of God, such as that which is expressed in: He hears through Me, and sees through Me, and holds through Me, and walks through Me.[5]

Our Lord! Grant us from Your Presence a special mercy and arrange for us in our affairs what is right and for our good! And bestow peace and blessings on our master Muhammad and his Family forever.

Footnotes

[1] Imaduddin Nasimi (1369–1417), Azerbaijan’s outstanding poet of the 15th century, wrote in Azerbaijan along with Arabic and Persian. He was very successful in lyric poems. (Tr.)

[2] al-Bukhari, “Riqaq,” 38.

[3] Muslim, “Tawba,” 7.

[4] Tokadizade Şekip was one of the Turkish poets and writers who lived in Izmir in the first half of the 20th century. He wrote in favor of political freedom and was one of the founders of the Association of Defending the Basic Rights in Izmir. (Tr.)

[5] al-Hakim at-Tirmidhi, Nawadiru’l-‘Usul, 3:81; Ibn Kathir, Tafsiru’l-Qur’an, 2:580; Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Fathu’l-Bari, 1:13.

Fear and hope or expectation are deliberate attitudes, and are a first station for a traveler on the way to God. Contraction and openness are mysterious “bargains” that have been made without the will or intention of the traveler. The first one blocks his or her way; the second one gives him or her wings to fly to the heights. If fear and hope represent anxiety about and the joy of expectations for the future, as well as liked and disliked things, contraction and openness can be regarded as the heart’s contracting with gloom and depression and expanding with joy.

Contraction and openness have the same meaning for travelers on the slopes of knowledge of God as do fear and hope or expectation for the newly initiated. Both are in the hands of God, even if we cannot exclude from them part of one’s free will: God contracts and expands (2:245). As the whole of existence is in His grasp and at His free disposal, it is He Who directs and disposes of all things, from the heavens to the human heart. The Prophetic saying: The heart is between the two ‘Fingers’ of the All-Merciful; He turns it from state to state and gives it whatever form He wills reminds us of this fact. When God wills, He contracts a heart so tightly that only He can provide what will satisfy it. By contrast, He expands and exhilarates it to such an extent that it needs nothing. Contraction is caused by God’s Majesty; openness is caused by His Grace. While the Grandeur and Magnificence relating to the manifestation by God of His Names on the whole of existence are displayed in the former, Mercy and Condescension are manifested in the latter. In the former, there is the frightening, awesome, and majestic nature of the Power that turns all existence from huge systems into particles, while in the latter there are affectionate breezes for those spirits trembling in awe at this infinitely vast, overwhelming Power, this overpowering Majesty.

Not everyone can feel such manifestations of Majesty and Grace at the same level, for the extent of contraction and openness is proportionate to one’s emotional and spiritual capacity. What an ordinary person feels as distress and relief or rejoicing differs markedly from the spiritual joy and anxiety experienced by one awakened to the Divine truths, one who is ever-alert for what will come through the half-opened door from the realms beyond, and who is conscious of God’s continuous and direct supervision.

Like every element of existence, contraction and openness are at the disposal of the Creator, Who alternates them continuously, like night and day. Even if this alternation appears to originate in the deeds performed in accordance with one’s free will, the Divine Will extends or shortens the periods of contraction and openness, and causes one to be consumed with tension or to overflow with delight. Sometimes a lover experiences openness for a long time, feeling as if flying like a bird, without being touched by any form of contraction; other times, contraction is a constant companion that stays so long that the lover feels that he or she is going from one hardship to another (and greater) hardship.

As neglecting the requirements of one’s spiritual position bestowed by God causes contraction, sins usually come together with contraction. For this reason, a believer must always be alert against committing new sins and deviations while suffering contraction, must not be overpowered by heedlessness, and must strive for self-purification through sincere repentance and the performance of good deeds. Then, the believer must wait for what will come from the realms beyond. While contraction is accompanied by fear, perplexity, and feelings of spiritual emptiness, openness manifests itself as joy, rapture, and feelings or utterances of pride. For this reason, openness may be risky for those spiritually less-developed people who have not yet attuned themselves to journeying in “celestial” realms.

Although there are risks associated with contraction, those associated with openness are greater and more numerous. One caught in contraction usually feels in his or her conscience an absolute need of the Almighty, and so turns to Him in sincere acknowledgment of this neediness with the words: Hold me! Hold me, lest I should fall! and, escaping the spiritual waste he or she feels, is favored with the Almighty’s help and reaches those heights that are beyond reach during times of openness.

This is why some people are exposed to heedlessness and loss of spiritual energy during times of openness, and why contraction leads almost every believer to new levels of alertness. In addition, the contraction originating from our sins or neglect usually signals the beginning of a new wave of openness; similarly, an expansion that causes pride and loss of spiritual energy may give rise to a new contraction.

A true believer is one who can judge each state experienced or achieved as it really is, with all of its aspects, and make it fruitful.

Contraction and openness are manifestations from Him for one who knows.
He causes openness so that the servant will thank Him,
and causes contraction so that the servant may become more alert.

O God! Open our breasts for Islam and establish our hearts
on belief. And bestow blessing and peace on our master
Muhammad, and on his Family and Companions, great and illustrious.

With so many expectations and obligations in our lives, it is a surprise we are not all insane. Dr. Brené Brown of the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work program is a shame resilience researcher, learning how people deal with issues like those above that can trigger feelings of shame, negatively impacting our relationships and ability to function. She has published three books covering the topic of shame and shame resilience. Dr. Brown has been gaining attention in recent years as she has appeared on CNN, NPR, PBS, and the internet video site TED. The topic may seem unusual, but the research has far-reaching implications, widely applicable beyond the social work field. Everyone experiences shame, and overcoming shame is necessary to function, instead of being held back and isolated by shame. Responding in a constructive, shame-minimizing way by working through shame issues is what Dr. Brown calls living in a more “whole-hearted” and “authentic” way.

Researching people

Social sciences have different methods of researching, and Dr. Brown used the grounded theory, a method which allows qualitative data, and inductive and deductive reasoning to gather data without having a hypothesis to start with. Using the grounded theory method, consensus from individual interviews was taken based on the language and terms they used to describe their experiences, “and maybe stories are just data with a soul,” posits Dr. Brown in her TED talk. Dr. Brown decided she wanted to study shame, and so she did so without any of her own theories to start. She just had the questions: What is shame and how does it work? According to Robert Hilliker, a licensed counselor, former student, and collaborator of Dr. Brown’s, she has gathered over 11,000 interviews with people, investigating their shame experiences and where applicable, their shame resilience.

Owning our own story can be hard, but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it.

Dr. Brown found that some of the people she interviewed showed impressive resilience to shaming experiences. She focused in on these people and studied what made them resilient to the effects of shame. The people were dubbed, “the whole-hearted.”

How shame works

The positive side of shame research is that there are tools to combat the feeling and the experience of shame, and to make our everyday lives less like shame minefields and more like a day at the office, picking up the kids, going to the grocery store, and making friends along the way. Simple exchanges with fellow parents or children, with bosses or teachers, spouses, friends, and acquaintances can easily turn into huge triggers for shameful feelings. When a weak spot is hit, a mistake is made, an accident happens, or someone runs late, short exchanges can become terse and tense, full of hidden meaning and innuendo, implied or imagined incompetence and inadequacy.

Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky, but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy–the experiences that make us most vulnerable Whether a situation goes smoothly or blows up in someone’s face has a lot to do with his or her shame triggers, something everyone has. Detailed in I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t): Telling the Truth About Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power, social and family situations can become nightmares when our lives are ruled by shame. For people that cannot deal with their shame (everyone to some extent, according to Dr. Brown) the options are limited: numbing the feelings of shame and fear through addictions, attempting to become “invulnerable” through perfectionism, making the uncertain certain by becoming dogmatic, and pretending that our actions do not hurt others. But these negative actions do harm others, and they break down our connections to others.

How whole-heartedness works

Even more exciting than learning that shame is universal and awful was that there are strengths that can be cultivated to overcome shame. The title of Dr. Brown’s second book says it all: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are. The main components of whole-hearted living were courage, compassion, and connection. Being authentic requires accepting ourselves for who we are and living that truthfully. “Owning our own story can be hard but not nearly as difficult spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy–the experiences that make us most vulnerable,” says Dr. Brown in her book.

There are so many ways to apply such a broadly useful set of concepts, especially for a person of faith. The “guideposts” in The Gifts of Imperfection evoke many concepts from holy books. “Cultivating Authenticity: Letting Go of What People Think” calls to mind the story of Prophet Noah, who everyone thought was crazy as he built an ark. The chapter on cultivating gratitude and joy clearly connects to faith. Dr. Brown’s perspective on gratitude is especially relevant to modern life: “For me and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is ‘I didn’t get enough sleep.’ … Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it …”

As I read this passage, it makes total sense to me why we’re a nation hungry for more joy: Because we’re starving from a lack of gratitude.

Opportunities for growth

Dr. Brown and counselor-protégé Robert Hilliker have developed a curriculum called Connections which covers many of the concepts from her books and research. They are also developing a certification program for counseling professionals such as social workers and clergy who would like training.

“Spiritual leadership has a responsibility to make faith communities safe and supportive … We actually train spiritual leaders in the curriculum,” says Hilliker. “[Shame resilience] would be a wonderful thing for faith book clubs to sort of rally around … Her work has really reached a tipping point where people are talking about shame, this very pervasive feeling that everybody has and few people deal with well,” he says. Such a common feeling that can be very debilitating may not be the most cheerful topic of conversation, but learning to deal with shame may be one of the most liberating acts in a person’s life. To learn more, please visit: http://www.connectionscertification.com/.

Dr. Brené Brown, from her website.

Defining Some Broad Terms

Shame is simply defined as the fear of disconnection, that a person will be rejected when he or she becomes vulnerable.

Courage from the Latin cor, originally (and by Brené Brown) meant to speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.

Compassion, defined as deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it, starts with self-compassion according to the shame-resilience research.

Connection is defined as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.

Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.

instead of a picture, multiplication table adorns my kitchen wall.

I have 8 arms like an octopus reaching in every direction.

Nobody can worry as much as I do.

There is always some stain on my clothes that detergent won’t remove.

I am a mother,

my notebook has dinosaurs drawn on it

the wall of my bedroom a little artist’s exhibition.

Me and my cell phone fall apart too often.

I lose my keys every other day.

I am a mother

and a pediatrician though I never went to medical school.

I play the cook, the nurse, the teacher, the driver, the singer

selfless like the rain, the earth, the sun.

I am a mother,

small things make me cry for joy.

like little notes that say “luv mom”

or sketched portrait with ugly teeth and fuzzy hair,

every line reflecting admiration and care.

I am a mother,

my heart deep and vast like an ocean.

I am a mother,

paradise lies under my feet.

Mirkena Ozer pursues MA in creative writing at the University of Georgia, Atlanta.

. . . emotions base, desire consuming

The meaning that flows over from the gaze is full of contempt for the subject of God.

Akif

Very few are exempt from such a turbulent point of view; no difference remains between what is collective and what is not, between capitalism, communism and liberalism. The distance in nature-between those who attach their lives to the considerations of eating and drinking, resting, and earning money, having a good time in general, and other beings who are bound to spend their lives in a similar way due to the unchanging character of their nature-becomes smaller day by day. The basic differences between the two sides vanish into thin air one by one, and humanity seeks new directions, despite its own nature.

Religion, piety, morality, free thought, our own perceptions of art are rarely given consideration; power has become so ulcerated as to be unrecognizable, fantasy has taken on the image of lofty ideals and these disagreeable ideas are being forced upon others. Indeed, I have to say that I have a hard time understanding the inner drama of such a terrible fanaticism. Nowadays, when enlightenment has become widespread, when intellectualism is at its apex, the fact that science and ignorance seems to meet at the same spot, contrary to the distance that one would expect to exist between them, suggests a dark complicity and makes the existence of a serious problem obvious. Such a contradiction gives us the impression that the emotional will of some people is miles ahead of their intellectual and logical will.

I believe that in such a dark period, when opposites have become intertwined, when in different sections of society chaos is heaped upon chaos, when shadowy acts of different origins have darkened the face of the Earth, when what is underground reigns over what is above, when polemics and dialectics have become so popular with so many, when hearsay, especially through the use of media, is welcomed as acceptable merchandise, when we have begun to feed upon the lives of others, when the soul of unity has been shaken and different groups are scattered everywhere, when hopes are shattered and wills are paralyzed, when souls give up the fight against desire, there is a burning need to turn toward our own spiritual sphere and listen to our own inner world, to tear ourselves from the dark atmosphere of the bodily realm and sail into the magical atmosphere of a hearty and spiritual life. Those who do not fall into lethargy and return to their usual state as soon as possible will feel the magic and charm of their own inner world; the unfortunate who fail to return and remain in between, or who remain on the other side, continue to resent, hate, slander, lie, and feel contempt, they continue in the dissolution and obstinate disagreement which they have practiced until this day, and even in climates where the sun continues to shine they will dream of dark things, they will mutter dark thoughts, always seeking dark places in which to hide and dark corners in which to live.

One hopes that they would be able to feel the joy of the blessed days and nights that we experience, when showers of light reach everywhere. One hopes they too would abandon the heresy, unbelief, dissension, and sedition in their hearts and that they would be able to respect the chosen understanding and stance of every single soul! Maybe one day these wishes will be fulfilled, but the self-proclaimed enemies of God, the prophets, religion, and piety-once having breathed nothing but materialism, having gone into a frenzy denying divinity, and having plunged into the quicksand of anarchy and nihilism-will never be able to breathe this reviving air. Oh dear Lord, had you only made yourself known to them and released the chains from their hearts!

In every community and society there are people who are inclined to abandon their faith and there have been many times when such people have spun out of control; other communities and societies do not have such powerful places to seek refuge when faced by these abysses and weaknesses as we have. Indeed, they have thoughts which soothe, beliefs which reconcile, days and nights which tremble with joy, festivals and carnivals; but, these days, these nights, these festivals, these carnivals are devoid of any holiness. They are like fireworks, shining for a moment and then are gone, giving only instantaneous pleasure; they are ephemeral and physical, not promising anything in the way of spiritual joy. Indeed, in their worlds you cannot feel the greatness of faith to God, nor can you feel that souls are free from the boundaries of time and space; everything starts with a false and transitory happiness, and takes place in a delirium of flesh. All is then transformed into painful memories, regrettable dreams, and disappointed hopes, and finally everything simply disappears.

In this spiritual atmosphere where we are closely bound to God, every sound, every word, every action is felt like a nursery rhyme and listened to like a melody. These shower down upon us like the rain; we soak up the bounties of these showers. The moon changes its form every night, as if signaling particular times and happy hours, the sun moves to a new spot on the horizon at every dawn, awakening our feelings and thoughts in a new period of time, causing our dreams to follow it, presenting memories to us that resemble the river Kawthar, promised to us in Heaven. The past becomes like a veil of many colors draped before our eyes, the happy future is the apex of our dreams, waiting for us with open arms and we, who have been freed from the narrow confines of time, live the multiplicity of yesterday-today-tomorrow simultaneously and, like the angels, feel all the joys of surpassing time. It is impossible for those who are not fed from the same source, those who do not share the same feelings and thoughts, to feel and understand the holy depths or the happiness and joy like the rivers of Paradise to the same extent.

Our faith, our horizons of thought, and our manner-characteristics of the fortunate, but at the same time belonging to a little-wronged nation of the world-have become, through being formed and re-formed in the mold of the collective personality, greatly refined and adorned with universal values. The truth is that in these characteristics the holy sadness of our hearts and the enthusiasm of our souls, like water running between the rocks, are felt and heard. Indeed, those who listen to what we have to say always hear the melodies of the pain of separation voiced along with hope; they hear the notes of reunion, of the sweet and eternal search for home in our intonation and manner. Indeed, while on the one hand we murmur “Oh, cup bearer, I have burnt in the flames of love, give me a cup of water,” on the other we say “I have dipped my finger in and tasted the honey of love, give me a cup of water,” and thus we are able to turn our grief into smiles. Our tongues speak sometimes of love and sometimes of weariness; though love and weariness cause pain to others, in them we always hear, like Rumi, the poem of longing for the realm that we have left to come here. Love and weariness to us are like a plea from the tongue of the soul, stemming from a sorrowful desire for eternity. Since our beliefs and feelings take us to the magical worlds of beyond, we almost always feel sadness and joy intertwined; we hear the sounds of crying and laughing as different notes of the same melody. We respond to the troubled heaving of our breasts with smiles on our faces, as our eyes overflow with tears, our conscience takes upon a red hue with the roses of the Iram gardens.

Even though it may not be easy for every individual, our connection to God is the most natural attitude that we can adopt; our relation with Him is like a spell that transforms all the moments of our life into enthusiasm and joy. Our hearts that beat with feelings toward Him fill and re-fill with the dream of this gaze; we are able to live through the bitterest autumns in our hearts because we have the joy of spring. Our souls adopt the most enviable attitudes with instincts of particular feelings and joy that are the result of our connection with the All-Glorious One; thus transformed, they make us feel a refreshed enthusiasm, a new opening and revelation, even at moments when we are filled with sadness and grief. Pleasure or sadness, revelation or sorrow, all these emotions undergo metamorphoses in our hearts, as they beat with faith and speak to us of the most natural pleasures and the most realistic expectations. It is a fact that we, too, experience interconnected moments of ease and hardship, sweet weeks and bitter days, light and darkness which come and pass, like day and night. However, we sip the unsurpassable benevolence and joys from the hands of all these tribulations, because we have our beliefs, our connection to the Just One and our hopes! Those who do not recognize the trials and pleasures to be the product of the same will writhe in never-ending agony, while in our own atmosphere we see clearly that everything will be transformed into deep compassion. We taste a whole life, with its bitter and sweet facets like Kawthar, the blessed water of Paradise, in everything that we eat and drink, at every place that we inhabit, with all the beautifully divine discoveries of our own inner world. With all of their different wavelengths, we feel our sorrows shrink in the face of happiness, feel our pain melt away in pleasure and feel how our lives flow into glazed cisterns in a spectrum of colors. Our mortality is transformed into eternity; we exude smiles even when we cry.

In our world, the beliefs and the expectations that emerge from the heart of those beliefs are so intertwined with our lives that each chapter of our lives lends us the wings of the station of prayer and takes us to the gate of the Hereafter. It takes us there and lets our hearts drink of the beauties of heaven. In this way, we feel as if we are inhaling the scents of heaven. Even if we should let ourselves be swept along by our daily lives, the calls for prayer, songs that exalt God, the various sounds of prayer, the recitation of the names of God, those who give Him thanks, calling out His Uniqueness, letting this spill from the windows of the mosques, all draw us to their climate; they paint our souls with their hues, they give a tambour-like voice to our hearts, they make them sigh like a flute and excite them with the happiness of music. These sounds excite our souls and we are charmed by the mysteries pertaining to God, the charm of these mysteries which comes galloping from the depths of our inner world and which spreads to all our senses, this charm which tints the gardens of heaven in our thoughts and which flows past our lips like cascades of inspiration. Thus charmed, we stand awe-struck.

This charm, this recognition of the mysteries pertaining to God, reaches a higher level on the blessed days and nights when limitless abundance and bounty are showered upon us. This is true to such an extent that everything around us ascends in a state of joy, every corner takes on a spiritual hue and the excitement of our souls, aiming at metaphysical destinations, reaches its apex, or in Sufi terms, our souls reach the highest heaven of maturity. To the degree that we can hear and listen to what is all around us, we too rejoice like children who feel as if they are in the fair grounds of joy; thus we experience the happiness and joy of a feast day.

In such a world, the dawn flows into our houses from the doors and windows like an awaited guest; the evening comes into our private chambers like a lover; the night clings to us with its associations of reunion with the Confidant; and in every valley hands are raised up toward Him in prayer, ready to receive the gifts that will come from Him, assuming a state of metaphysical tension with the power of the soul, sighing, saying “Hold my hand dear Confidant, hold it, for I cannot do without You.”

In such a world, prayers roar like the booming voices of Gulbang hymns and echo like the voice and breath of the divine depths; the warm solitude of the night envelopes our souls like silk; our pulses beat with the excitement of one who has received good tidings. Perhaps some of us keep singing His praises, come rain or shine, like the nightingale that breaks its heart in an effort to express the ideal rhythm for its emotions with the most touching of sounds. In a word, everyone is humming a melody with never-ending agony and joy, never-fading love and excitement, listening to the shivering of their souls and letting others hear it, too. Everyone sighs with the fever of love and makes other people feel it. Yes, as they reflect on the excitement in their souls and the inspiration of their hearts, expressing themselves one last time, they become the mouthpiece for the feelings shared by all and they are able to speak of the hidden meanings that they want to speak of but fail to verbalize.

The horizon of living yesterday-today-tomorrow at the same time with such a degree of faith and hope, of love and recognition of the mysteries that pertain to God, gives such a depth to life that each heart in the orbit of the hereafter finds itself wrapped up in the melodious harmony of emotions and ideas and is freed from the limiting, stifling effects of matter. I believe that the strongest basis of all human relations, the purest source of all pleasures, and the fountain of all love, longing, attraction, and gravity is this faith and hope. Every disciple of the heart who attains this faith and hope can experience and feel the state of being outside of time, with the ability to sense all of its depths.

Indeed, to the extent that one can attain this view, one can feel existence in a different manner, evaluate things in a different way and melt in on oneself with the color, taste, aroma and accent of manifestations from the Eternal; these attributes pervade everything, and people can reach a second existence with a new “birth after death.” During such joyful hours, when the internal gaze is focused on that which is behind the visual scene of existence, one feels all the joys of being. One feels as if one has taken a shower in wisdom, as if one is freed from the weight of all things that are alien to one. The distant heavens shower blessings down upon these hearts, hearts thirsty for love and galloping with longing and affection; all hearts that live in fear of drying up are quenched. Celestial flowers flourish in these showers adorned with dreams!

Some of us may not be able to comprehend this state-a state which becomes a succession of struggle (to overcome the darkness with its all connotation) and dawn-of these people of faith and horizon; but all these are phenomena of the heart, soul and emotions. Living through the countless revelations of life, no one but the active heroes of the dawn and of the great strife can understand this love, enthusiasm, poetry, and music poured into our souls by the Eternal One. Those who do not understand this will not be able to understand these heroes, either. Those who remain distant to this fine and delicate life live in the darkness, while the comprehension of those who have found a position from where they can view the truth in such a way that it appears as obvious as it really is always feel this gift in all its wavelengths, sip it like the rivers of Paradise and live their earthly lives as if in Heaven.

Who knows how many more times we will speak of this never-ending pleasure and joy, in the delight of a festival, of a feast day! How ever many more times we may speak of it-the faults of the speaker’s mode of expression aside-we will still listen with pleasure and try to share it with others.

Notes

1. A place mentioned in the Qur’an (al Fajr 89:7-8), “. . . the city of ýram, with lofty pillars; the like of which were not produced in all the land.”
2. Hymns sung in the mosque in unison by the congregation .
3. The change communicated along these lines is not to be related to reincarnational notions.

Since the creation of humankind, day followed night, and light was accompanied by dark. Just like the alternation of light and dark over the Earth, bright days were followed by days of pitch dark, and relief-laden eras were replaced by periods of crisis. From time to time, almost every corner was obscured by the darkness of atheism and conflict. Roads were left without illumination. Humanity was defeated by darkness. Some unfettered people with vain ideas crowded the scene, sending their inauspicious muttering throughout the world. At times, the collective conscience held its breath in the face of the noise they made, entering into a contemplation of silence. Then, the word fell into disrepute. Slaves acquired the seal of authority. Masses became toys of demagogy. They were manipulated to silence or action at will. Unsuitable persons were declared stars while many talented persons were barricaded from stardom. False pretensions and dialectical philosophy blocked logic and reasoning. Evil thoughts replaced decent ideas. The institutions from which society expected mercy and compassion were occupied by crude souls obsessed with hatred and animosity. Using these institutions, they sowed seeds of mischief among people, making them enemies of each other. Considerable damage was done to religious thought. The longstanding criteria were undermined and everything turned into chaos. Cups of sweet drink were replaced with goblets of poison, dishes of honey and cream with pots of filth, and light with darkness.

In these dreadful and ominous eras, minds became so confused that people could not help but feel agitated even when they extended a hand to the most decent and noblest of things. Without trust, we referred to each other as “wild,” “animal,” “savage,” and “barbarian.” A small group of faithful and conscientious people, if they existed, were humiliated and rendered speechless. The slaves of darkness became ferocious while the souls who longed for light waited for a helping hand to appear on the horizon of miraculous blessings; they yearned for sunrises; they daydreamed of times that would emerge from mercy. When lips would twitch with the tiniest of smiles out of these considerations they were swept away by subsequent storms of worry; temporary moments of happiness were effectively replaced with years of sorrow.

In line with the notion of “history repeats itself,” the foregoing account applies to our time as well. All of a sudden, clear and sunny horizons are covered with mist and smoke, our view is blocked and our hearts shudder with gloom. Days of joy are dim. Darkness shades our thoughts; our wills are cracked, and our hopes are demolished. At times, one feels as if the sun will never rise again and that daylight will never appear. Unguided souls are shivering with internal desperation and resultant curses.

As for us, as always, we are sure the he latest chaos boiling with filth will soon be terminated, and felicitous days will come in which the divine destiny will clear roads for our nation. As a matter of fact, stories of people of heart are already being related everywhere. Everywhere, pure souls are breathless with the desire to find the Paradise they have lost. Hundreds or thousands of people are meditating upon such considerations, contemplating the purpose of creation and the causes of nature. Yet, we are passing through a rather foggy period of time with respect to our spiritual lives. Moreover, a chilling wind blows for a while, filling the air with the vibration of sorrow. Even the places that overflow with ultimate joy are, from time to time, suffused with worry and despair. Nevertheless, we all know well that worry and despair can no longer stand firm. And when the horizons are bright to help us distinguish good from evil, all the hardships endured on the road will be immediately mitigated. Distances will readily submit to endeavors and efforts. Hills will turn into valleys, and valleys will become smoother; and then, ideals will be intertwined with the journey, and no trace of hardship will be felt in the face of the glamor of the horizons of the goal.

Nowadays, hands are reaching out, though feebly, to the rope of the heart, and the breaths of the soul are heard everywhere. Reason and heart go hand in hand. Thought is embracing inspiration with its dazzling depths. Logic is subordinated to divine revelation. Science guides us to faith; knowledge is led by intuitive knowledge; laboratories raise apprentices to the prayer hall; wills are lively and resolute with the help of the water of life that is offered by faith; eyes wander on the same horizons with insight; contradicting physics, metaphysical springs emerge everywhere. It seems obvious that snow or ice, however cold they are, cannot survive long in the face of the heat kindled in the sources. Blizzards, however strong they are, will fail to extinguish the torches protected by the lanterns of the natural tendencies of human nature – as long as it is permitted by God. Although, at times, most of us turn crimson red, shivering with various worries or making a fuss over strong winds, it is obvious that we send our warmest smiles to our surroundings like roses bursting from their buds, effervescing like nightingales flitting from one branch to another. We cannot deny the fact that our hearts leap with hope and expectation for the sounds of “waterfalls of life” to reach us, for “the white hand”1 to hover over our heads. The already awakened souls ponder these considerations with confidence; it is as if they have reached the borders of their hearts, and are full of joy with the enthusiasm of having sensed the odors of the Paradise, however slight its trickle may be.

Yes, those capable of filtering current events through their hearts and souls can feel the coming of spring, which brings a shining sun and all the shades of green under foot. Waterfalls of assistance and effort gurgle in the bed of divine blessings, heading toward the sea free from all obstacles; they pass over or bypass any obstruction they face and they try to represent the mission endowed by divine destiny in detail with the beautiful geometric lines they leave behind. As they walk, the roads hail them; seemingly insurmountable obstacles are flattened and nullified, as if they are prostrating themselves before these holy ones.

As a matter of fact, this state is always the case for the matured souls: at all times, they send fragrance to their surroundings like censers. Burning like sticks of incense, they convey the joy of burning to everybody through their moans. When necessary, they roar like lions, displaying their characters. When necessary, they sing like nightingales, filling souls with joy and relief. Their foreheads have been impressed with the seal of being both dear and humble; they are neither oppressed nor are they tyrants. It is a spectacular sight when they show their modesty before their Lord, acting humbly to the highest extent. In short, they are the heroes who have managed to merge lion-like manners with dove-like customs in the same vessel, and those who are gifted in getting to know their inner profundities always want to be with them.

How I wish my body would always shiver like swaying tress before my Lord in a state of openness to this delicacy, knocking on His door with a yearning for acceptance! How I wish I could occupy myself with my own faults instead of concentrating on the errors I observe here and there, to ignore their mistakes! How I wish I could detect my own defects and failures at each beat of my pulsing heart! It is my sincere wish that the values to be weighed on the scale of life be the products of conscientious reckoning that have been filtered through my internal contemplations. It is my sincere wish that my scale of acquisitions is always full to the greatest extent, and that all credit is attributed to Him for my acquisitions – I continuously long to completely forget comfort and languor, to seek the peace of the heart in toil, and to become calm with hardship. I yearn to moan like Job and to cry like David for my faults and for my erroneous manners, no matter how small – I long to devote my self to the peace and security of humanity as long as I live. I have a desire to have so vast a love that it will embrace everybody with warmth and non-discrimination and I wish to be forgetful of rage, hate, and animosity.

Now, let us devote ourselves to the illumination of humankind with profundity; let us melt like candles in our endeavors so to enlighten our remote or close environment in preference to our selfish desires. Wherever we go, let us be the voice and translator of the truth with a spirit of real devotion, telling Him and communicating His message. Let us be so respectful in our relations with God and so sincere in submission to Him that we make celestial angels envy our manners and make spiritual beings feel obliged to retreat a few steps in the face of the meanings that overflow from our selves. Let us wrap our selves with the color of the dawns that follow the nights on which the most sincere prayers are offered to God and assume the role assigned to us at the time of creation; let us behave ourselves. Let us put an end to our comfort without fearing hardships and run in such haste that birds watch us in awe; let us cry out the truth with such sincerity that savages seek refuge in their lairs with fear. When we feel like a lion, let us not instill fear in people; let us instead attempt to cast off the shackles on our will. When we feel like fire, let us not ignite new fires, but illuminate the people around us by setting the candles alight. When we turn into a flood, let us flow toward gardens and orchards to give them life. When we blow like winds, let us carry seeds for propagation; let us bring drops of moisture together to teach the clouds how to become rain as a divine mercy.

Indeed, we must show earnest respect to those esteemed by God. God treats and views people differently. He may place a person in the lead to serve as an altar in glorifying Him. He may whisper the enigma of existence into their soul, crowning them with a special caliphate. By taking this person to new horizons through faith and intuitive knowledge, He enables them to feel the truth of His presence. He prepares eternal happiness for such people in the Hereafter. He opens doorways to the Paradise in their heart; He makes this dungeon-like world a waiting room for the coming Paradise. He honors those who manage all their actions based on insight in this world by allowing them to watch His beauty in the Hereafter. He brings thousands of aspects to single-dimension living. In their magical worlds, He transforms seas into the rose-covered slopes of Paradise, and ever-boiling hells into babbling springs of life. He creates new worlds with incredible wonders for them every day.

Certainly, those who live in this world like the blind, the deaf, and the dead will not even get a glimpse of the above. Those who act unwarily, even taking lightly these grave conditions today will be likely to continually wail from penitence in the future. Then, let us be vigilant today so that we will not be troubled for rest and sleep tomorrow. Let us weep abundantly today so that we will not cry from regret tomorrow. Let us concentrate at all times on the horizon where we are heading, so as not to be distracted by the attractive things on the side of the road. If we fail to regard this world as a marketplace where trade is carried out for acquisitions to be taken onto the Hereafter and manage our life accordingly, if we lead our life in line with the whims of carnal desires, then we should not be surprised when one day somebody puts a packsaddle on us and mounts us. This is indeed the kind of treatment that the narrow-minded, feckless, and conceited people will receive. The value of mankind is directly proportional to the degree of their connection with God and the continuation of their sincere relations with Him. A human-shaped body contaminated with carnal desires and alienated from Him will have less value than mud, even if decorated with gold, silver, and satin.

Then, come and liberate yourself from bodily worries and carnal troubles! Turn toward Him with your whole existence and fix your gaze on Him for in this way these initial gifts will increase greatly in value! Never forget that His favor turns a drop of water into a sea, a particle into a sun, and transforms your impotence and poverty into your greatest strength. On the other hand, if you rely on your own power, you will blunder – like trying to heat great cauldrons with a single spark, you will lay yourself open to ridicule. Know the limits of your power and resources, and make your plans accordingly. If you ignore this important point and set on building facts on fancies, whatever you do will come tumbling down, crushing your faith and hopes. Assess yourself frequently through internal self-criticism and contemplation, specify your position well according to your capabilities and resources, and be aware of the relation between your potential and the effort you have exerted. Avoid becoming “a carrier of divine gifts with no fidelity,” that is, try not to be regarded as a spoiled person who has become arrogant with benefactions from other people.

Rely on divine grace at the highest degree, but never fail to fulfill whatever free will requires of you. Do not expect secondary winds to carry you to your target; consider the fact that those who have been taken to higher levels by today’s winds may one day be thrown into the deepest pits by tomorrow’s storms; try to live in line with the realities.

Know that religion is a road leading to divine proximity, and sincerely hold fast to a life led by religion. Seek shelter in the secure harbor of faith, and submit to the Creator! Never falter in reliance on Him and keep your manners always decent before Him; endeavor to be a modest believer without any vanity or ostentation! Abounding hearts are silent like boxes loaded with ore. Empty souls make a great deal of noise just like children’s money-boxes that contain several fake pearls. Always remember that your heart is monitored by God many times at every instant, and therefore, keep your heart clean and immaculate at all times and you will head toward that eternal altar! Until now, whoever has headed toward that altar has never lost while whoever sought faithfulness from other places has never won. Rather, those who sought shelter at that gate have remained lively and have been honored with eternity, saved from the disgrace of being slaves of other entities. When one finds Him and faces Him, when one reveals one’s deepest feeling in His presence, one glorifies and exalts Him. To remain silent is to contemplate in meditation and self-criticism. Those who manage to be in His presence and proximity always feel the water of life, even if they are in a desert; those who rely on Him in all their acts always reap roses, even if they have sown thorn-bushes. Even under hell-like conditions, they are always at peace and calm. And the following is their motto:

Servants of God cannot be slaves to another slave,
Never will true servants be stranded.
Their souls are filled with joy in reunion,
Never will they be deceived, even if everybody else is
Perhaps, we will find an opportunity to deal with this issue one day.

Note

1. The miraculous hand of Moses

Time is adorned with the colors of divinity; people become more sociable, as if they were the peaceful residents of the world-to-come, and they are able to attain a profound awareness. Everyone hears an otherworldly poem, both from within themselves and from the hearts of all existence, and they travel at the sunrise and sunset of many fantasies and memories, expectations, and dreams. With associations that are sometimes sad and at other times joyful, the blessed three months remind us of the longing for a lost paradise and embrace us with a thrilling hope that we will be able to find it again. Memories and associations in these days, every minute of which is filled with bliss, happiness, motivation, and action, transform our feelings into a silent poem and our lives into mystical exquisiteness.

This illuminated time of the year presents various delights and spiritual pleasures to those who can appreciate its worth and value, and restores heavenly times as hearts are enlightened with spirituality, as the streets and minarets are adorned with the brightest of lamps, and faces glow with charm and elegance. The colorful lights of this time shine at various wave lengths, the comforting atmosphere of its delicate breeze echoes manifestations of the present time and enchants all in its direction, permeating those of us who have reached an understanding of the belief, Islam, the mosque, and the prayer, preparing us for knowledge and love of God, and spiritual pleasures.

As we live through this golden phase of the time each year, we feel as if we are once again experiencing those pleasant and joyful heavenly days, which are true life itself. Once again, spring pervades the vision of our hearts and life pours out from every location; the countryside flourishes, verdant and cheerful with a multitude of colors, flowers dance and nightingales sing . . . and our emotions burn as if enflamed by roses and tulips. The prevalent ambiance inspires us with a promise of happiness and whispers to us about these unique and exclusive emotions. Even those ill-fated individuals whose lives are locked up in cynicism and gloom benefit from this divine celebration. The days strike those hours of prayer like a plectrum on the wires of the hearts, playing the real meaning of life. A poem starts as the call to prayer is heard in as much purity as in the singing of birds and in the joy of children . . . a poem of prayers as impressive as the beauty of heaven and as complete and mature as a heart which is in love with that beauty . . . a poem of feelings overflows our bosom with praise and reflection in a mode where we are both an addressee and an addresser to God at one and the same time. And then the veils on the face of existence are removed; we are blessed with special peaceful moments of satisfaction of being near to God. Five times a day we tour around a spiral of light, go through times of heavenly ascension, and dream of being a perfected human. 

The Four Holy Nights

Raghaib, Mi‘raj, Bara’a, and Qadr

The calendar may indicate the beginning of Rajab as being on a different day each year, but the blessed three months actually start on the first Thursday evening of Rajab, with a most-welcomed divine grace. Raghaib, the Most Desired, is the first night that stimulates our feelings, preparing them for holier days to come.2 Almost three weeks later, Mi‘raj, the Night of Ascension, comes along, as the creak of the heavenly doors opening wide is heard and the divine breezes for those determined souls can be felt. Bara’a, the Night of Salvation (or Record), calls out to the enthused and watchful ones with good tidings of salvation. And finally the Qadr, the Night of Power, embraces us with forgiveness, mercy, and a blissful prosperity that is beyond imagination and which can only be obtained after an effort of a thousand months.

Days and nights continue one after the other, spreading out a sweet and tempting tenderness for believing hearts. Each day comes along with a brightness and dynamism and pours down on us abundant blessings. After the sun sets at the end of the day, a fantastic morning follows . . . a new, quiet morning with every kind of beauty, a morning that weaves original motifs in the hearts of the wise.

RAJAB

Those of us who are on full alert with prayers, supplications, and glorifications within the month of Rajab, attain a pure pleasure of a wonderful spectacle. Everyone speaks in an elevated manner and style; a majestic look, awe for the divine, and the joy of hope is on our faces. Communication between each and every individual is established through the medium of the heart, improper behavior decreases, and people unload all their worldly burdens and rise to spiritual joy as if on an Ascension. The splendor overflowing from their souls and the colorful refinement on their faces reach such lofty levels that they can soften even the most hardened of hearts and extract elegance from them.

Nights evolve into a mystical form and inspire brilliant thoughts as Rajab begins. Each moment becomes a gateway to the divine and infuses us with hope and heavenly fancies, appealing to our desire for the infinite. Our silent feelings are awakened and remarkable thoughts of happiness are voiced in an extraordinary expression.

SHA’BAN

Sha’ban, or “Shahrullah al-Muazzam” (The Great Month), as it is frequently called, is felt with a pleasure suffused into the entire existence and our inner selves. Our hearts incline toward a hope, an expectation, and joyful beauty. Sha’ban is like a magical tune that captivates those who seek shelter across the horizons of mercy, like a mother hugging her child in a most compassionate manner. During this month it is as if time has been shattered and our feelings welcome blessings from worlds unbounded by time. In the course of the illuminated moments and profound perception of Rajab, everyone goes through a reality; it is as if they were to take one step further they would be elevated up to Heaven on a magical stair. And these moments introduce us to the exhibition of our hidden desires that pertain to infinite existence.

RAMADAN

Ramadan appears on the horizon with its unique warmth and charm; our conscience becomes vigilant and awake. Crowds pour into the mosques and from thereon walk toward Our Lord. Ramadan strengthens spiritual connections and other-worldly desires. Believing hearts acquire greater enthusiasm with love and yearning. Ramadan is the most illuminated, intense, effective, and pleasant of times; it is the most significant dynamism of our religious life. The entire city becomes a residence of the other world . . . the breaths of the minarets echo in the hearts with a Qur’anic lament. Mosques glow with light and resonate with the prayers of worshippers. The joy and contentment of turning to God is felt everywhere. Praying hearts rise aloft, sharing with others all their beauty, and declaring their love in utmost privacy. They consider every night a shab-i arus3 (wedding night), as if commanded “Prepare for the union!”

Every sound during Ramadan resonates with a promise of a new start, just as every breath gives us a glimpse of a hope for salvation. Iftar dinners (breaking the fast) appear on our horizon with implications for the “grand meeting,” while whispering some secrets into our soul. Tarawih prayers (a sunna-an act conducted or recommended by the Prophet-prayer peculiar to Ramadan, observed at night) are each a pledge for our “realm of hope.” Nights open their harem gates like a coy bride and pour into our soul blessings that glow in lights of every hue. Dawns come along, echoing the high pitch of the ferry’s horn, or the sweeping by of a jet, or the blast of a rocket, and bring the good tidings of a night journey on the path to a reunion with the Friend. And finally, a long day embraces us with the first hours of this sweetest encounter in excitement, but cautious; exhilarated, but full of hope.

Life is so profound and meaningful during Ramadan that every word uttered and every sound heard is like a composition gushing out from its very core; exposed to the most fantastic tunes our feelings undergo refinement. The soul blooms in Ramadan, and dormant feelings embedded deep-within awake as we stroll around the most enchanting and wonderful dreams, filled to the bone with zeal and a yearning for ecstasy, filled with a need for reunion, and infusing us with the joy of true life.

Having achieved the attainment of the Ramadan provisions in full, everyone reaches a level of perception where they can see that the end of this illuminated, but slightly veiled, road upon which we are traveling opens to an eternal serenity for which they have always longed; here awaits much beyond what they have been granted here. They turn to Him with all their being. At each dawn and evening they sense a new gate of reunion opening, as well as the need and hope for a loftier and captivating meeting which is merely two steps ahead. They are filled with homesickness and loneliness, on the one hand, and with expectations and dreams on the other; they are enwrapped in a greater magic and drawn into the profundity of true love. They become intoxicated as they start feeling the love . . . the love around which every phenomenon in the infinite space takes place, as it does in the infinity of their hearts. Male and female, old and young, rich and poor, every individual experiences an important time of preparation in Ramadan; each in accordance with their level of perception, and from then on it is as if they are walking toward God on a road that has no end. 

Notes

1. The lunar calendar used by Muslims. The emigration of Prophet Muhammad from Makka to Madina in 622 AD marks the beginning of this calendar.
2. Raghaib is celebrated on the night preceding the first Friday of Rajab.
3. A metaphor by Rumi, portraying death as union with God, the most beloved. 

expressing joy and grief, hope and despair.

When consumed with pangs of separation, melting like candle,

man breathes in tears and speaks in tears.

A time comes when man rejoices child-like with tears of joy,

as he sees dawn begin to break all over the world.

At another time he burns with inward sorrow, like a furnace,

when his horizons are clouded over with grief.

Tears are water of life putting out fires,

A membrane protective against the fire of Hell.

By tears ideals find their realization in the outer world;

by tears the arid world changes into gardens.

An eye sincerely tearful is like an eye vigilant at the front.

Eyes shedding tears for god’s sake do not see Hellfire.

The shedding of tears sounds the depths of desire.

Only they perceive this who sense god inwardly.

I am always gloomy with sorrowful tidings;

My loved ones are ‘flying away’ one after another.

My feelings are hurt, my eyes filled with tears,

Springs come only to terminate in autumn!

Life means hardship, and when you reach fifty-five,

desires are no more; ambitions fall like yellow leaves;

limbs and organs become enfeebled for the unknown end,

and you feel the last stop is only a little way ahead.

On the horizon is either blood or an eternal light,

towards which believing souls walk without pausing;

whatever is promised-happy or unhappy-will be revealed:

some faces pitch-dark, and others bright with joy.

I am utterly at a loss, my head between my hands,

for fear that my flowers of hope should be frost-bitten;

I do not know how near I am to the final end,

but feel my spirit whispering to the Angel of Death.

We are, all together, on a way surrendered

to the music of eternity, with our spirits

like butterflies flying upward to eternity,

and yielding to the most pleasant of declines.

The spirit, like a flute, weeps bitterly a whole lifetime;

neither its exile nor period of vanishing comes to an end….

It travels ceaselessly in crazy pursuit of Him, with eyes

strained by sorrows of separation and a heart beating fast.

***

Shed tears, O eyes, so that the sun may rise and set

over the streams formed of the tears you let fall!

Weep so that ‘Niles’ may flow in valleys, and fires enveloping Abraham

may be put out, and spells broken with the Staff of truth!

Weep so that the mountain said to surround the world may sunder

and water of life gush therefrom, and the dead be revived;

Weep so that the chains around the will may be broken,

and the cavalry of dawn come galloping one after the other!

Grief of separation consumes the lover, and yet

even in gloomiest hours, he never despairs of ‘spring’;

journeying from desert to desert amid bitter tears

in ever-constant hope of the union he desires.

He weeps from deep within a heart like embers,

always alert and on the move as if chasing gazelle,

drunk upon hope of the beloved who eludes him

and whom he finds again in his nightly dreams.

Phantoms of anxiety beset his spirit, on his face

now joy shines like sunrise, now sunset gloom;

at times the door is ajar on a far landscape just

perceptible, it’s colours and tones hinting Paradise.

A moment comes when despair overwhelms and hope

seems unrecoverable, and then another when dawn breaks

in perfumed brightness. At times he withers like leaves,

melts like candles, and his sobbing his heard from afar.

Even then, in never-ending autumn, the root of his desire

flowers in hope, he transforms the grief of separation

into longing music, makes deepest wells of sorrow

brim with joy, celebrating the immortality of Love.

In the deep wells of his eyes a meaning settles

from the eternal life and is present in his looks and smile;

his feelings sound the depths of eternity, then flow out

like soil-enriching river floods or fertile winds.

Whoever truly loves understands love is everything;

that it may be either fatal poison or elixir of life;

but whoever loves the Truth and pursues the ways

to the Eternal Being knows it as inspiration, as life.

***