The First Station
“I claim not they my soul was innocent, indeed the
soul incites to evil,
except in as much as my Lord has mercy.” (12:53)
The nafs that orders to evil: its walking, its world, its place, its state,
its attributes, its ugly qualities, and how to be free from it and rise to the
second station where it acquires the quality of al-lawamma, the state of the
nafs that is self-reproaching.
The walking of the nafs al-amarra is toward Allah; its world is that
world of the seeing; its place is in the chest; its state is inclination (wa-raiiduha);
and its source of inspiration is the shari’a.
Know that the seven nafs are one, and it is named differently according
to its attributes which are the inciting to evil (al-amarra), the reproachful
(al-lawamma), the inspired (al-mulhama), the arrested (al-mutma’inna),
the pleased (ar-radiyya), the pleasing (al-mardiyya), and the
perfect or complete (an-nafs al-kamala).
Know that the nafs is the heart about which Allah says, “This
is a reminder for whoever has a heart.” (50:37) What is indicated by the
word “heart” is not a piece of flesh, but is a subtlety established
by the Lord which may lean toward the physical body and which may become
established in following its appetites. By this I mean the animal spirit
which loses its preferred qualities and takes on lowly qualities. It becomes
like the animals, and the shaitan becomes one of its soldiers. Some of its qualities are
ignorance, greed, arrogance, anger, appetite, hatred, forgetfulness, envy, hurting
others with the hand and the tongue, and other ugly qualities. All this is an
evil nafs. The Prophet Yusuf, speaking about this, said, “Surely
the nafs commands to evil.” (12:53)
The Messenger of Allah, may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him,
said, “Your
greatest enemy is your self that is between your two sides.” This
is because the nafs inhabits the darkness of the physical world. It does not distinguish
between right and wrong (truth, al-haqq) and the force (battle); it
does not distinguish between good and evil. The accursed shaitan cannot
influence humanity except through its venue. So, O seeker, be wary of it. Do
not trust it. Do not help it. Do not support it; on the contrary, stop it. Cut
down on your food, on your drink, and on your sleep that you may weaken the animal nafs that
grow on satisfying its appetites. If you weaken it, then you are closer to release
from it.
Let your dhikr in this station be la ilaha illa’llah while
extending the laa and emphasize the iil in ilaha and
emphasize illa’llah. (NO God BUT Allah) LAA IILaha ILL Allah,
LAA IILaha ILL Allah, LAA IILaha ILL Allah. And do not be lazy in emphasizing
the ILL of illa; LAA IILaha ILL Allah, but if you do not, then the ii turns
into a ya sound, and this is not the word of at-tawhidand there
is no benefit in its repetition. Most of the people who do dhikr are
not aware of this point. Do this dhikr standing, sitting, and on your
side at all times out loud. The effect of this dhikr is only felt after
much loud repetition in the nighttime and in the daytime.
Allah says in Hadith Qudsi, “La ilaha illa’llah is
My fortress; whoever enters My fortress is safe from My punishment. And
the Messenger of Allah said, “La ilaha illa’llah is the best of adh-dhikr and
the best of good action. Those most likely to receive my intercession are
the ones who say it purely from their hearts.” There is no slave
who says it before he dies except that he enters the garden (al-janna), even if
he commits adultery and even if he steals. Allah says in Hadith Qudsi, “ I
am in the good opinion of My slave. I am with him if he remembers Me. If
he remembers me in a place, I remember him in a better place.”
The Messenger of Allah, may peace and blessing be upon him, said, “When
people sit in remembrance of Allah, they are surrounded by angels and they
are covered with mercy and they receive al-sakina, which is the
peace inspired by Allah, and Allah mentions them in His assembly.”
And the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him,
said, “If you pass by the gardens of heaven, then graze there.” And
if was asked, “And what are the gardens of heaven?” He answered, “The
gatherings of adh-dhikr.”
So, O you who seek freedom from your enemies, enter the fortress of your Lord,
which is to repeat la ilaha illa’llah. Release your noble self
from the prison of the body so that you may arrive at the higher stations. Know
that the seeker continues with this adh-dhikr until it brings him to
His presence. The seeker continues this adh-dhikr without much pleasure
in its meaning until the dark veils are lifted from his heart, and he is able
to witness with inner sight that all movement and stillness, all giving and withholding,
and benefit and harm are from Allah. This becomes a tasting which is witnessing
from the state, not just from belief.
This witnessing through tasting is only known to those who taste. Its outward
signs are that you no longer hate any creature, and you do not cause harm to
a believer, an unbeliever, an animal, or to your enemy. When you say la ilaha,
release from your heart anything that you worship other than Allah, and when
you say illa’llah, say it with strength and in a state of presence
and awe. Close your eyes and listen to what you say. Be in a state of purity
and beware of what you eat. All ugly qualities arise from a full stomach, even
in the stomach that is full of halal food; so how much worse if it is
full of haramfood.
Polish the mirror of your heart and remove the rust that stops you from perceiving
the realities of things and from understanding the finer points. Know that your
mirror in this station is very rusted with the rust of arrogance, envy, hatred,
appetite, greed, resentment, and other qualities that you know in yourself. It
is very important in this station to clean yourself form these impurities that
stop the heart from piercing the unseen. Do this by strong dhikr, and
by reducing your food and sleep, so that you tighten the roads the shaitan travels
in you.
Know that this station in which the nafs is called the inciting (amarra)
is a prison and is the lowest of the low. So it is most important to be freed
from it. The raising of the voice is important to awaken the nafs from
its habitual forgetfulness. So do adh-dhikr strongly, stand with the shari’a,
take your nafs into account every hour, put fear into your nafs with
the thought of death and the punishment of the grave and the other difficulties
it will have to cross.
Know that in this station you go through the two states of fear and hope. When
you are done with this station, your fear turns into constriction (qadb)
and your hope turns into expansion (bast). Then your state of constriction
turns into a state of awe and the state of expansion turns into a feeling of
being home, a feeling of familiarity. If you reach to a degree of perfection,
then constriction is experienced as al-jalal and expansion is experienced
as al-jamal. In this first station you always need to remember the reason
for fear because this is more useful to you than holding on to hope. But if fear
becomes extensive or extreme and you become desperate, then you need to remember
the reasons for hope, such as the mercy of Allah, His forgiveness, and His nobility.
You need to be in constant state of humility and surrender. Plead to Allah and
ask Him to release you from this station through His gentleness and generosity,
and increase you from his station through His gentleness and generosity and increase
you dua, your prayers to Allah. Do not ever tire of pleading to Allah.
Do not ever say to yourself that Allah does not accept your prayer because this
will cut you off from the Haqq.
The Prophet, may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him, said, “Supplication
(dua) is worship.” And Allah, Glory be to Him, says, “Call
upon Me, I will respond to you. Those who are too arrogant to plead with Me will
enter the Hell-fire.” (40:60-1) And the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s
blessings and peace be upon him, said, “Supplication is the matter of worship.”(1)
And he said, “Nothing stops the decree except supplication, and supplication
protects you from harm.” Whoever wants Allah to answer his call in hard
times, “Let him plead to Allah in easy times.”
Know that no one turns to Allah in supplication without receiving what he asks
for sooner or later. See the generosity of your Lord-how He makes your supplication
affect His order.(2) See how generous Allah is, that He gets upset if He is not
asked.(3) So how can you turn your back to the One who has opened many doors
of generosity to you?(4) And how can you turn to His enemies, the shaitan,
the dunya, and the appetites?
Know that you have been made with a predisposition to the best and that you are
made for al-khalifa and to hold the highest authority. Remember that
your father (Adam) was the Qibla for the angels; remember that He taught
him the names; remember that he was the vice-regent of Allah on His earth.
So my beloved, awake from your forgetfulness that has destroyed you, put you
in a lowly position, and demeaned you, and turn toward what you absolutely need,
and draw near through good action before you are taken to His presence in chains.
He said to you, “My slave, if you draw near to Me by the span of a hand’s
length, I draw near to you by the length of an arm; and if you draw near to Me
by an arm’s length; and if you draw near to Me by an arm’s
length, then I draw near to you by the span of two arms length; and if
you come near to Me walking, I come to you running.”
So abandon hesitation, and leave what preoccupies you and distracts you from
your Lord. Help yourself by being satisfied with what you have, whether it be
much or little, and leave alone the vanishing pleasures. Be preoccupied with
what helps you. And do not delay your repentance and drawing near to Allah because
you do not know how much time you have left in this dunya.
The Messenger of Allah said, “Leave the dunya to its people.
If anyone takes from the dunya any more than he needs, he is hurting himself
without realizing it.”
My beloved, when you are in this station that is narrow and vile, pray for freedom
from the constrictions of the nafs to enter into the expanse of the
soul (al-ruh). Pray that you should let go of all the ugly qualities
I have mentioned, and take on the beautiful qualities that please your Lord.
Substitute pride for humility, hatred for love, ostentation for sincerity, and
fame for obscurity until there is no one left who still either commends or condemns
you. And know that if you are busy with releasing yourself from every ugly quality
and changing it to every beautiful quality, then you will see what is amazing,
and you will reveal the hidden secrets, and you will understand the following
saying:
Your cure is in you,
But you do not see;
Your sickness is from you,
But you do not feel;
You allege at you are a small star,
While you contain the whole
Cosmos.
Allah
1. The marrow of a thing is its essence.
2. “Prayer revokes the decrees of destiny, benevolence increases
provision”
3. The Prophet, alayhee as-salam, said, “When the door of prayer
is open for you, the doors of response are opened also.”
4. Prayer makes the decrees of destiny easier to bear.
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