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AL-HAJJ AL-AKBAR
The Great Pilgrimage
Bismillah ir-rahman ir-rahim
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate
The Great Pilgrimage --where the lovers meet at the door of
the sacred mosque and reunite in the still center after turning
and turning and turning around the throne of the Most High.
Majnun meets Laila in the course of his journey around the holy
house. She has always been with him, but only in this station,
in the midst of his unveiling, does he realize her nearness and
the intimacy of her discourse. The dialogue of love is the mystery
of her revelation within him. As he circumambulates the reality
and becomes more and more effaced in it, as one by one he surrenders
the veils of his separateness, her presence, the still center,
the open heart around which he turns, becomes more and more revealed
withim him until no other existence remains.
So many are the veils to be burnt in the holy Hajj,
and hidden within every ritual act is the annihilating flame. First
he circumambulates the Ka‘ba seven times, and in this turning
he walks through the stations of the self. Laila is his shaykh,
his guide, to take him through every station. She is the message;
she can only be what she is. He must travel through all his trials
and doubts, his anger and depression, his joys, his yearnings, his
tests: "What is the meaning of this? Why are we going in circles?"
She is the patience to carry him through every station of his journey.
Her eyes, which never lose sight of him, are mercy and compassion.
And yet she kills him with the sword of al-Haqq [the real, the truth;
a name of God] which is her essence. He penetrates every veil and
annihilates himself simply by being the essence of the truth as
he travels, so intimately, with her around the holy house. At the
end of his first seven circumambulations, he kisses the foundation
stone of the Ka‘ba, which Adam brought from the garden, and
which Ibrahim built the Ka‘ba around. Here he prays two rak‘ah
where Ibrahim prayed. In this he drinks from the wine of the prophets
and sends the love which they carried to every side.
Then she leads him to the well, her deep secret spring. This is
Zamzam, where the mercy of Allah sprang forth in the desert for
Hajjar and Isma‘il and all the believers who have walked in
their footsteps, in the form of living water. Once he has drunk
from the well of mercy, Majnun goes walking in the way of his motther
Hajjar, between the stations of as-Safa and al-Marwa [two hills].
As-Safa signifies the purity of being, the beauty of Allah and the
purity of his intention, and al-marwa the station of the majesty
of Allah. Seven times he walks between these poles --from the beauty
of God, where Hajjar was with her son in peace and purity, to the
severity of God where she was alone in the desert with the deepest
fatigue. In his travels, Laila leads Majnun through the seven stations
of the heart. In every passage she gives him another color behind
the light and another dimension of the essence of love. At the end,
when she sees the depth of his surrender and the ripeness of his
soul, she leads him to the holy mountain of ‘Arafat, where
Ibrahim offered Isma‘il and took the last veil --killed the
sense of separation.
Now Majnun, in the way of Isma‘il, stops to pray on the road
where Ibrahim, peace and prayers be upon him, prayed to ask for
help. Then he ascends Mount ‘Arafah,
the mountain of knowing (al-ma‘rifa), to offer himself as
Isma‘il was offered, giving everything to the unity (at-tawhid).
Then Laila gives him holy and more holy dresses from her dress,
until his existence (al-wujud) is only her existence. he begins
to send her voice from his tongue, as Ibrahim called into the desert.
He sings, "La ilaha ill Allah." She speaks through him
because there is no he. When Majnun is inside Laila on the Mount
of ‘Arafat, she says to him, "On this day, I complete
your religion. You have come to know me as I know you. I can now
say, you are my beloved. The source of every secret is from you.
I created everything for you. Know me in everything, to send what
I give you, in the holy marriage on the mountain of knowing. From
this knowing your soul is broken. Now you are Laila, not another."
To complete the holy hajj, Majnun (immersed in Laila and Laila
immersed in Majnun) walks from ‘Arafah to the place where
the pilgrims throw stones at the shaytan. The first day there he
throws stones and hits his ash-shaytan seven times, and later seven
times, and then again seven times. The second day he repeats this,
and the third day he repeats this, until all together he has thrown
sixty-three stones. These stones represent all the veils. Every
stone he throws is la ilaha ill Allah. His ash-shaytan surrenders
to him and prostrates under his foot; the fallen angel returns to
the truth in the beginning. Then Majnun who is Laila kisses the
foundation stone of the Ka‘ba to renew his promise with his
father Adam, and circumabulates the Ka‘ba seven final times
to journey through the stations of the the soul. In every turning
around the holy house, he realizes the station of a prophet. He
holds a passport and this passport is a mirror. If his mirror is
clean, when any prophet looks into the mirror, his image is reflected
purely, without distortion. Then Majnun passes on. He realizes
in Adam, truth; in Idris, wisdom; in Noah, patience; in Ibrahim,
surrender; in Musa, the word of God, the mind of God; in Isa, the
essence of the deep secret love; and in Muhammad, the station of
complete effacement in the reality, may Allah's blessings and peace
be upon them all. In this station of the seventh death,
he takes off all his clothes and while he can see everyone, no one
can see him.
In this station he makes his final sajda at the door of the sacred
mosque and from this sajda he does not lift up his head again because
there is no head to lift up. The Ka‘ba is Laila's last veil.
Majnun has made the great pilgrimage and come to the shore of the
great sea. Now he stands on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the
boundless vastness of his unity with all that he has sought and
yearned for. Laila has led him by the hand through all the stations,
through all the turns, through the burning of veils and the annihilation
of all that is separate from Allah, to be done with everything,
to make the perfect sajda and to pass through the ritual act, through
the manifestation of her hand, beyond the circumambulations, beyond
the apparent wall of the Ka‘ba, to truly enter the sacred
mosque of his own reality. He goes into the stone to find the hidden
treasture within it, and when he sees himself face to face in the
mirror of her essence, he starts to fly and to circumambulate the
throne through the seven levels of her sky. The Ka‘ba is Laila's
last veil; the black stone is Laila's night. But the essence of
the holy rock is pure and boundless light. When Majnun is completely
inside the heart of the soul of his love, he sees that her light
has absorbed all the darkness, like a hand that fits in a glove.
Behind the obscuring veils of her form, the light of the reality
is so intense that no one could enter the garden of her soul without
penetrating the fence. No rocks or bricks can break through this
wall, but only the depth of surrender, and only when Majnun is naughted
by his love does Laila permit him to enter.
ALLAH.
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