O son! Entrust your nafs (the lower self) to the world, your qalb (the heart) to the hereafter, and your sirr (innermost secret) to the Mawlā (the Lord). Do not become content or find peace with the world. It is a bejeweled serpent. With its adornment, it attracts people to itself, then destroys them. Turn away from it completely and decisively.
Be sincere in worship to your Lord (may He be glorified), in companionship with righteous friends, in serving your brothers, and in turning away from lusts. Affirm tawḥīd (the oneness of God) so completely that not even a speck of created things remains in your heart. Then you will not even see house or home. Tawḥīd kills everything. All remedy lies in affirming the Divine Unity and turning away from the serpent of the world. There is no good in you until you know your nafs, restrain it from its desires, and give it its due. Then the qalb finds peace from the sirr, and the sirr finds peace from the Truth. Do not lift the staff of mujāhada (spiritual struggle) from your nafs! Do not be deceived by its cunning. Do not let its sleep deceive you. Do not let the sleep of a wild beast deceive you; it watches you, appears to sleep, but is actually waiting for an opportunity. Just as you would beware of it when awake, beware of it when asleep as well. Beware of your nafs! Do not lower your weapons from the neck of your qalb. This nafs shows contentment, humility, and satisfaction for good, but in reality, it hides the opposite within. Pay attention to what may come from it later.
Increase your sorrow. Decrease your comfort. This path (Sufism – taṣawwuf) is built upon sorrow and distress. The Prophets, Messengers, and the righteous have all lived in this state. The sorrow of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was long, and his contemplation was constant. Yet he would smile with a gentle cheerfulness. He would force himself to appear at ease. A wise person is not spoiled by worldly things such as children, wealth, property, clothing, vehicles, or spouse. All of these are empty. The joy of the believer comes from the strength of his iman (faith); his certainty and firm conviction come from his qalb drawing near to the gate of his Lord’s proximity.
Open the eye of your nafs and say to it:
“Just as your Lord sees you, so you too see Him! See how He destroyed the wealthy and the kings? Take heed from how those before you perished! They ruled over this world and tasted its blessings. Then the world was taken from their hands. Now they live as captives in the prisons of torment. Their palaces have become ruins, their wealth and property have vanished; only their deeds remain. The lusts are gone, the weariness remains! There is no comfort; this is not the time for ease.”
Let not the beauty of your spouse and children, nor the abundance of wealth and property, make you arrogant. What did not spoil the Prophets, Messengers, and the righteous should not spoil you either. Allah the Exalted has said:
“Indeed, Allah does not like the arrogant.” [al-Qaṣaṣ, 28:76]
That is, He does not love those who are spoiled by the world and by all that is other than Him. However, He loves those who find joy with Him, who find comfort through nearness to Him. The distinguishing trait and character of the Sufis is that their desires are attached to the hereafter, not to lusts, pleasures, or frivolities.
O you who chase after your whims! There is no good for you in what you desire. O heedless ones! For those who do not obey Allah the Exalted, there is a severe punishment in the hereafter. When a servant’s qalb is upright, he bids farewell to everything. He throws everything behind his qalb. In exchange for the dominion of the hereafter, he does not care if his worldly life is destroyed. He walks on fire, mingles with wild beasts, flees from people. He abandons himself to the thirst and hunger of the deserts, saying: “O Guide of the bewildered! Show me Your path!”
O Allah! Make all our efforts and aspirations into a single effort, a single aspiration.
This state can only be completed by first being ascetic (zāhid) towards the unlawful, then the permissible, and then even the lawful, by turning away from them. Strive to spend your evenings and mornings with not even a speck of people in your qalb. I see you filled with lusts, pleasures, people, the world, and reliance on causes. Then why do you speak of the states of the righteous? Why do you claim to possess their state? You tell us of the states of others, you offer us from the purse of others! You rummage through other people’s books, extract their words, and speak from them; your listeners imagine that these words are inspirations that have come to you, that you possess such states, that you speak them from your own qalb.
Woe to you! First act upon what they say, then speak. Let your speech be the offspring of your action. This path (taṣawwuf) is not attained merely by seeing the righteous and memorizing their words. Rather, it is attained by acting upon what they say, being well-mannered in their company, thinking well of them, and always maintaining this state.
Ordinary people earn reward according to the steps they take with their feet; the elect (khawāṣṣ) earn reward according to their aspirations. Whoever’s aspiration and effort is one, the Exalted Truth becomes one for him; if the servant turns his qalb away from everything other than Him, He turns His face to him.
Allah the Exalted has said in His Noble Qur’an:
“My Protector is Allah, who has sent down the Book; and He is the Protector of the righteous.” [al-Aʿrāf, 7:196]
When the qalb of such a servant reaches his Lord, He becomes his healer and intimate. That servant finds no cure except with Him, no companionship except with Him. Dāwūd (peace be upon him) used to say:
“O my God! I went to the physicians among Your servants, and all of them sent me to You; O Guide of the bewildered, be my guide!”
The qalb of one who loves Allah the Exalted becomes entirely longing, filled with complete turning away, annihilated in every aspect. Indeed, all his effort becomes a single effort.
True unveiling (kashf) only occurs when one is freed from the veil (ḥijāb). If you seek union (wuṣla), abandon the world, the hereafter, and everything from the depths of the earth to the Throne.
Every creature except the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) is a veil, a barrier to the Truth; the Messenger of God, however, is the gate to the Truth. Allah the Exalted has said about him:
“Whatever the Messenger gives you, take it; and whatever he forbids you, abstain from it.” [al-Ḥashr, 59:7]
Following him is not a veil from the Truth; rather, it is a means to union.
O son! When will your qalb truly understand the reality? When will your sirr be completely pure? You are associating people with the Truth (shirk – associating partners with God). How can you find salvation when your qalb is empty of taqwa (God-consciousness), when not even a speck of taqwa is in your qalb? Every night you look for someone to fulfill your needs, you complain to him, you beg from him; how can your qalb, deprived of tawḥīd, be pure and clean? Tawḥīd is light, illumination; associating people with the Truth is darkness, obscurity. You are veiled from the Truth by people. You are veiled from the Creator of causes by the causes. You are veiled because you rely on and trust in people. You are nothing but claims. Who will accept you with your empty claims, without any proof?
The path of Sufism (taṣawwuf) is traversed in only two ways:
1- Through mujāhada (striving), struggling, becoming accustomed to hardship and fatigue – this is the well-known and widespread way among the righteous;
2- As a gift from the Truth, a gratuitous bestowal – this is rare and granted to very few.
O son! When your iman is weak, you should strive to restrain your nafs; what concern is it of yours to think about friends, neighbors, the people, the nation? When your iman is strong, then look to your friends, your spouse, your children, the people. Without donning the armor of taqwa, without placing the helmet of iman on your qalb, without taking up the sword of tawḥīd, without placing the arrows of accepted dua (supplication) in your quiver, without mounting the steed of divine success (tawfīq), without learning the arts of battle, do not go to them. Then, make an assault against the enemies of the Creator. At that time, the help and victory of the Truth will come to you from six directions: right, left, above, below, front, and behind… Then you will rescue people from the hand of Satan and bring them to the gate of the Truth. The veil is lifted from the eye of the qalb of one who reaches this station (maqām). Whichever of the six directions he turns, his gaze tears through the veil. Nothing remains hidden from him. When he lifts the head of his qalb, he sees the Throne and the heavens. When he turns his gaze to the earth, he sees its layers and the jinn who dwell there.
When you reach this station, bring people to the gate of the Truth. Before reaching this, nothing will come of you. If you call people to the Truth while you yourself are not at the gate of the Truth, your call will only be a burden for you; the more you move, the lower you descend, the more you wish to rise, the lower you fall. You have no knowledge of the righteous! You are nothing but idle talk. You are a tongue without a heart. An exterior without an interior. A public presence without seclusion. A shell without a kernel. Your sword is made of wood. Your arrow is a matchstick. You are a coward; what business have you with courage! Even the simplest arrow would kill you. The smallest attack is enough to bring about your doomsday.
O Allah! Protect our religion, our iman, and our bodies with Your nearness.
“Our Lord, give us in this world good and in the Hereafter good, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.”
Source: Jilāʾ al-Khāṭir, The Principles of the Path, ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, Translation: Dilaver Gürer