It is sweeter. The width, length, and breadth of this tree are several times that of the world. Its parts are emeraldness, greenness, redness, ruby-ness, sweetness, honey-ness, and nikāhlılıq (marriageability). The width, length, and breadth of this tree, which I have compared to this world, are realities present in the world of bodies that you imagine in the world of hayāl (imagination) and compose its parts. This composition is not in the strength of the world of bodies, but in the strength of the world of spirits. Accordingly, that tree appears to you in the world of imagination through the mediation of the world of bodies and the world of spirits.
murīd-murād. However, that world is not dependent on either of these. For if it were only from the world of bodies, everyone would see it. Therefore, it cannot be seen. For I said it is several times the size of the world. If it were only from the world of spirits, it would have to continue as long as the spirits subsist. However, by virtue of being a body, non-existence applies to it, and by virtue of being a spirit, it is depicted to you in that way. For the spirit is very vast. This, then, is the secret of the harmony of spirits and bodies that we have explained to you. For spirits attain perfections through bodies that they could not attain without being bodies. (Marātib, 28)
Murekkebāt-i samʿiyya (compound sounds)... A word is formed from letters. A person hears these letters as a single thing. The sounds heard from the melodies produced by musical instruments made of materials such as silk, wood, iron, lead, leather, hair, are also like this. Even the sound produced by clapping is a compound (not simple) sound. Understand!
Murekkebāt-i jismāniyya (material compounds) are of three types. The first is the highest composition. It has only a longitudinal dimension. This dimension consists of two or more substances. If one substance is added to another, it is only a line. The second is the intermediate composition. It has two dimensions, vertical and horizontal. In this composition, the line consists of four or more substances, two vertical and two horizontal. This is called a surface. The third is the lowest composition. In this composition, the body has three dimensions: width, length, and depth. This dimension consists of eight or more substances. In the world of material composition, the first created being is the Atlas sphere, and the last created being is the human.
Murekkebāt-i rūḥāniyya (spiritual compounds)... The parts of these compositions are formed from the world of spirits. Each part of this, in a certain respect and view, is notional. There is a part of these compositions that is known by the one who observes this world and recognizes its forms. There is nothing stranger than this world. There are even stranger things in this world. (Marātib, 31)
Murekkebāt-i nūrāniyya (luminous compounds) are the celestial bodies referred to as stars. The parts of these bodies are composed of four qualities: heat, cold, wetness, and dryness. Each star composed of these is, at the same time, a single ḥaqīqa (inner reality) that cannot be visibly divided, as well as being great and ʿaẓama (magnificent). In fact, philosophers have said that the sun is more than one hundred and sixty times larger than the dunyā (world). (Marātib, 32)
murīd-murād ('sign of the murīd; act of the murīd; maqāmāt of the path; intermediate; true murīd; murīd of the hereafter; form of sulūk; path of the murīd)
What is the sign of the murīd? He said: It is to cease gathering with those whose desire is not like his own, and for both his friend and his enemy to be safe from his harm. 714 murīd-murād
The sign of the murīd is to find in the Qur'an everything he seeks, to act upon what he knows, to learn what he does not know, to abandon things that are of no benefit, to desire the promises (glad tidings for the hereafter), while earnestly wishing to be saved from threats (warnings for the hereafter), and to leave others and occupy himself with his own nafs (lower self). (Lumaʿ, 276)
The murīd is one whose initial state is sound, who has joined the ranks of those whose name is directed to Allah, whose sincerity of will is witnessed by the hearts of the truthful, and who has not yet attained to ḥāl (spiritual state) and maqām (spiritual station). The murīd is still on the journey by his own will.
The murād, on the other hand, is one who no longer has his own will. He is one who has reached the ends, surpassed states and stations, aims and wills. He is the one who is desired. What is willed is willed through him. He only wills what he is willed to will. (Lumaʿ, 417)
The murīd, in reality, is the one who is desired. The murād is the one who wills Allah Most High and is desired only by the will that Allah has decreed for him.
The murīd is one who has surpassed the unveiling of ittiḥād (union). The murād is the one who has surpassed the unveiling of union. (Taʿarruf, 107)
The murīd's practices after the morning prayer are to recite the Qur'an, perform tasbīḥ (glorification), ḥamd (praise), and other forms of dhikr (remembrance of God), and to reflect on the infinity of Allah's blessings, goodness, and ihsān (spiritual excellence).
The murīd's practice after the daytime prayers is to begin reflecting on the greatness and blessings of Allah Most High, the ihsān and gifts that come from places the servant has or has not reckoned, known or unknown, as well as to recite the Qur'an and perform various dhikrs such as tasbīḥ, ḥamd, and praise. The murīd considers his shortcomings in shukr (gratitude) for Allah's visible and invisible blessings, his inability to obey Allah's commands beautifully, his constant failure to give thanks for blessings, or thinks about the commands and recommended acts he must perform in the future. Or he reflects on how much Allah Most High has concealed his sins, how He has shown him kindness, how He has concealed His grace, the mistakes he has made and how excessive he has been in them, the time wasted without righteous deeds, how Allah rules in His dominion, His power in His malakūt (spiritual realm), the signs and blessings in His dominion and malakūt, and the visible and invisible punishments and trials therein. (Kūt, I, 14)
The murīd must possess seven qualities: The first is the correctness of will. Its sign is making preparations.
The second is seeking causes for obedience. Its sign is to stay away from bad companions.
The third is to know the state of his own nafs. Its sign is to discover the afflictions of the nafs.
murīd-murād. The fourth is to befriend those who know Allah. Its sign is to prefer Allah over everything else.
The fifth is to perform sincere tawba (repentance). Through this, one finds the taste of obedience and continues in it. The sign of tawba is to remove the causes that would lead one to follow his desires and to be ascetic towards what the nafs desires.
The sixth is to eat only halal food not opposed by knowledge (the Qur'an and Sunnah). The sign of halal food is to examine it carefully and to acquire knowledge about its permissibility according to the religion.
The seventh is to acquire a righteous friend to consult. The sign of a righteous friend is that he helps in good deeds and taqwa (God-consciousness), and warns against sin and enmity.
These seven qualities are the nourishment of will, and will is balanced only by them. These seven qualities are supported by four others, which are the foundation and pillars of its structure: The first is hunger, the others are wakefulness, silence, and retreat. These four qualities imprison the nafs and keep it under pressure. Binding the nafs with these qualities weakens its attributes and improves its conduct. (Kūt, I, 94)
The difference between murīd and murād has been explained as follows: According to the Sufis, the murīd is the beginner, the murād is the one who has reached the end of the path. The murīd is weary and exhausted, enduring hardship and difficulty, while the murād accomplishes his task without fatigue or difficulty. The murīd tires, but the murād is aided by his being desired. Allah's law is diverse for those who seek their own path.
When Junayd was asked about the murīd and the murād, he replied: The murīd is governed by the discipline of knowledge. The murād is under the protection of the Real (God) Most High. For the murīd walks, but the murād flies. Can one who walks ever catch up with one who flies? (Qushayrī, 102)
I heard from Master Abū ʿAlī Daqqāq: The leaf of a tree that grows by itself without a cultivator exists, but it does not bear fruit. The murīd is like this. One who does not have a master from whom he can breathe in the principles of his tariqa (Sufi path) is a slave to his own desires and cannot find the path to salvation. If the murīd wishes to embark on sulūk (spiritual journey) after this, he must repent to Allah Most High for every mistake he makes. In this process, he abandons all open, hidden, major, and minor sins. First, he tries to please his adversaries. For nothing of this tariqa is opened to one who does not make peace with his adversaries. Indeed, those who have embarked on this path have acted in this way.
After this, he tries to erase attachments and preoccupations from his heart. For the structure of this tariqa is based on emptying the heart of preoccupations. Shiblī said to Husrī, who was at the beginning of the path: If, from one Friday to the next, anything other than Allah passes through your heart, it is forbidden for you to come to my gathering.
When the murīd wishes to rid himself of attachments, the first of these is to detach from wealth. For wealth is an attachment that distracts him from the Real (God). There is no murīd who enters this path and has an attachment to the world, but that attachment soon draws him back to what he had left. When he has detached from wealth, he must then detach from fame. For the desire for fame is a great obstacle. Unless, in the eyes of the murīd, the attention of people and their turning away from him become equal, no good can come from him. On the contrary, the fact that people speak of him leads to ruin, so the most harmful thing for the murīd is for people to see him as a valuable person and to seek blessing through him. Yet the murīd has not yet made his will sound. How can people seek blessing through him?
It is also necessary for murīds to detach from fame, for fame is a deadly poison for them. In this ḥāl (state), the murīd must make his contract with Allah sound and not oppose his shaykh in anything the shaykh indicates. For at the beginning, opposing the shaykh is very harmful. For the beginning of the murīd's state is an indication of how his whole life will be. The condition for this is that there is no objection in his heart against his shaykh. If the murīd thinks in his heart that he has rank or value in this world or the next, or that there could be someone lower than him in this world, then his will is not sound. For what the murīd must do is not to seek the value of his own nafs, but to strive to know his Lord. There is a difference, both in this world and the next, between one who seeks Allah and one who seeks station for his own nafs.
Moreover, the murīd must guard his secret from everyone except his shaykh, even from his own button. If he conceals even a single breath from his shaykh, he has betrayed his murīd-hood. If he opposes his shaykh in any of the matters the shaykh indicates, he must immediately confess this opposition in his presence and then submit to the shaykh's judgment as a penalty for his crime and opposition. This penalty may be a journey imposed by the shaykh or another task he deems appropriate. It is not right for shaykhs to overlook the mistakes of murīds, for this would be to neglect the right of Allah Most High. Unless the murīd has detached from all attachments, it is not permissible for the shaykh to instruct him in any dhikr. Rather, the shaykh must test him. When the shaykh's heart witnesses the determination of the murīd, he must also make him accept the various manifestations of destiny he will encounter on this path. Then he takes a pledge from the murīd that he will not incline towards ease in his heart, that when faced with difficulties he will not resort to dispensations in necessity, that he will not prefer to pause, and that he will not succumb to laziness. (Qushayrī, 197)
The murīd's pausing is worse than his slackening. The difference between slackening and pausing is this: slackening is turning back and leaving murīd-hood; pausing is stagnation in the journey of sulūk due to laziness. No good can come from a murīd who pauses at the very beginning of the journey. The shaykh who will test his murīd should instruct him in one of the dhikrs he deems appropriate. The shaykh first commands his murīd to recite a name with his tongue, then to include his heart in the dhikr with his tongue, saying: You are eternally in the presence of your Lord with your heart. As much as possible, let nothing but this name come from your tongue! Then the shaykh commands his murīd to always be in a state of ṭahāra (ritual purity) outwardly. He tells him not to sleep unless overcome by sleep, and to gradually reduce his food intake as much as he can bear. He does not command him to abandon his habits all at once.
Then the shaykh instructs his murīd to prefer retreat and seclusion, and in this state, to strive to repel religious thoughts and the desires of the nafs that preoccupy his heart, which cannot be entirely eliminated. Know that a person at the beginning of murīd-hood is rarely protected from doubts about belief while in retreat. This is especially the case if the murīd has a subtle heart (is spiritually sensitive). There are very few sāliks (travelers) who do not encounter such doubts at the beginning of murīd-hood. These are the tests that murīds face. In this situation, if the shaykh sees in him discernment, he should direct the murīd to rational proofs. For the sālik who takes the path of maʿrifa (gnosis) can be saved from doubts that arise by means of knowledge. If the shaykh discovers in his murīd strength and steadfastness in the path of Sufism, he commands him to persist in patience and dhikr until the lights of acceptance shine in his heart and the sun of union rises in his secret. (If the murīd obeys the command) the result is achieved in a short time. However, this method of training can only be applied to a select few murīds (it does not yield successful results for everyone). Most murīds are trained by resorting to proofs and by reflecting on verses, provided they acquire the necessary amount of knowledge of the principles. (Qushayrī, 198)
For one who has even a little value and importance for the world in his heart, the use of the name will (that is, being called murīd) is metaphorical. If a person has a desire in his heart about how and to whom to spend what he wants to spend, he is in hardship and in danger of quickly returning to the world. For the murīd's intention in detaching from attachments is not to do good deeds, but only to leave those attachments. For the murīd, after abandoning his capital and wealth, it is disgraceful to become a slave to a profession. For the murīd, it should be the same whether he has something or not, so that he does not hate the poor because of wealth, nor does his heart become narrow because of anyone, even if he is a Magian. (Qushayrī, 200)
The shaykh-i matbūʿ (the shaykh to be followed), who treats the nafs of murīds and those who wish to be guided, should not burden murīds with ascetic practices and special obligations without knowing their character.
The shaykh recognizes the dominant bad character of the murīd, knows the value, state, and age of his murīd, and understands how much treatment he can bear, and then determines his path. For these reasons, the shaykh sometimes instructs some murīds to go out and beg in the market. This happens as follows. If the shaykh sees a kind of ri...