…..

They said “ You’re a clever little man,

Full of argument and doubting.”

I went wild and had to be tied up.

They said,  “not wild enough for us.”

I pulled out my feathers and became a fool.

They said “Now you are a candle for this congregation.

You can fly.  You have wings.”

But I have no wings.

I wanted Your wings.

Then a voice said

 ‘Stay still.  A Sublime generosity is moving towards you;’

and an old love said,

Stay with Me.

and i said

i will.

Based on a Poem by  Mevlana Jalalludin Rumi

786

           Among readers there may be sufi aspirants who have been practising the methods of one of the forty sufi paths other than the Naqshbandi path.  If you are one of these you may be wondering what the difference is between the Naqshbandi way and other Sufi paths.  Are not all ways paths to one and the same Lord?

           Most Sufi paths offer aspirants a gradual unveiling of the heart’s eye accomplished through the practice of Dhikr (the commemoration of Allah).  Some of them involve practices designed to break the spell of mundane consciousness and propel the practicant into a state of altered awareness.  Without a doubt through the steadfast and dedicated practice of these methods the aspirant may experience spiritual states and attain stations unimaginable in a normal state of consciousness …

            If your eyes have been thus opened, and if you are greatly enamoured of the wide vistas you have beheld then be warned that, should you embark upon the Naqshbandi path your colourful plumage will be clipped and replaced with the humble cloak of obscurity.  The main difference between the Naqshbandi way and others is that while they are giving we are taking away.  First you will be without anything; then you will be nothing.                                                                                    

            Our Grandsheikh explained that as long as a drop is falling from the heavens it may be called a drop, but when it drops into the ocean it is no more a drop.   It is an Ocean.

… therefore we have been ordered to strip our followers of their spiritual adornments so that they may be presented to their Lord – “This is Your servant, ‘a nothing’.”

You must understand that the strange and enchanting experiences are the scenery of the journey, not the goal.

There are many veils between us and our heavenly positions.  A Naqshbandi Master rends these veils in a descending order starting with the one closest to the Divine Presence.    This process continues throughout the training of the murid until there is but one veil restraining the murid’s vision from the contemplation of the Divine Reality …..

In other tariqahs the veils are rent from the bottom.  As each is cut the murid beholds a new panorama;  but that very vision may keep them from progress,  as when he dies he leaves the world at that station only .  

.. Also there is a danger that those who attain such station during this life may discover that they have become powerful and famous among people; and you can be sure that the ego will never be heedless of such a cardinal opportunity to demand its share of the excitement and admiration, thus lending its taint to the whole process of spiritual endeavour.

            My advice is to leave fame to those who pursue it.  If you are a sufi aspirant seek your Lord, not fame.  History’s most renowned Holy Woman, the Virgin Mary once prayed;

“If only I were nameless and forgotten.”

 She has taught all mankind to seek only obscurity in the sight of the world.   …..– seek only, to be forgotten, in the Ocean of Unity of

Allah Almighty