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Muhammad Ma’sum (rahmat-Allahi ta’ala ’alaih) wrote in his sixty-first letter of the second volume:  Oh my Rabb! From You, I want iman the end of which is not disbelief 
“The most valuable and most beneficial thing in this world is to attain the ma’rifa of Allahu ta’ala, that is, to know Him. Allahu ta’ala can be known in two ways.
• In the first one, one can know Him as the scholars of Ahl as-Sunna (rahimahum-Allahu ta’ala) communicated. The second one is the understanding of the great men of tasawwuf.
Be at enmity with your nafs! It bears enmity against Me • The first one pertains to knowledge (’ilm), which originates from wisdom (’aql) and intelligence, while the second one pertains to a spiritual state (hal) which originates from the origin, the reality. • In the first one, there exists an ’alim as a mediator. In the second, mediation of the ’arif comes to an end, because becoming an ’arif of something means being lost in that thing. This is expressed well in the verse,
Descending and ascending does not make you closer,
To get closer to Haqq means to cease existing!
• The former is related to the ’ilm al-khusuli (knowledge attained by studying), and the latter to the ’ilm al-khuduri (knowledge attained through revelation).
• In the former the nafs has not given up disobedience, while in the latter the nafs has perished and is always with al-Haqq.
In the former, iman and ’ibadat are in a superficial form, because the nafs has not become a believer yet. A hadith qudsi declares,
‘Be at enmity with your nafs! It bears enmity against Me.’
Iman of the heart mentioned above is called the ‘iman al-majazi’ (metaphoric belief), which may go away.
In the latter, because there is no quality of being human left and because the nafs itself has become a believer, iman is protected from being lost, so it is called the ‘iman al-haqiqi’ (real belief). In this stage ’ibadat are real. The metaphor may be lost, but the reality will not cease existing.
This real belief is referred to in the hadith ash-sharif,
‘Oh my Rabb! From You, I want iman the end of which is not disbelief,’
and in the 136th ayat of the Surat an-Nisa,
‘Oh Believers! Believe in Allah and His Rasul.’ Tabular Version: | The two ways by which Allahu ta’ala can be known:
| | As the scholars of Ahl as-Sunna (rahimahum-Allahu ta’ala) communicated
| As the understanding of the great men of tasawwuf | | Gained as a result of study and meditation
| Is attained through kashf and shuhud of the heart | | Pertains to knowledge (’ilm), which originates from wisdom (’aql) and intelligence | Pertains to a spiritual state (hal) which originates from the origin, the reality
| | There exists an ’alim as a mediator | Mediation of the ’arif comes to an end, because becoming an ’arif of something means being lost in that thing. This is expressed well in the verse,
Descending and ascending does not make you closer…To get closer to Haqq means to cease existing!
| | Is related to the ’ilm al-khusuli (knowledge attained by studying) | Is related to the ’ilm al-khuduri (knowledge attained through revelation)
| | The nafs has not given up disobedience
| The nafs has perished and is always with al-Haqq | | Iman and ’ibadat are in a superficial form, because the nafs has not become a believer yet.
A hadith qudsi declares, ‘Be at enmity with your nafs! It bears enmity against Me.’
Iman of the heart mentioned above is called the ‘iman al-majazi’ (metaphoric belief), which may go away | Because there is no quality of being human left and because the nafs itself has become a believer, iman is protected from being lost, so it is called the ‘iman al-haqiqi’ (real belief).
In this stage ’ibadat are real. The metaphor may be lost, but the reality will not cease existing.
This real belief is referred to in the hadith ash-sharif, ‘Oh my Rabb! From You, I want iman the end of which is not disbelief,’
and in the 136th ayat of the Surat an-Nisa,
‘Oh Believers! Believe in Allah and His Rasul.’ | Tabular Version by Anwar-un-nabi continued in article "Tasawwuf (part 4)" ... Imam Muhammad Ma’sum al-Faruqi
(rahmat-Allahi ta’ala ’alaih)
sixty-first letter of the second volume of his Maktubat,
Reformatted extracts from the book
"Advice for the Muslim - Eleventh Edition"
Hakikat Kitabevi
Waqf Ikhlas Publications
Istanbul, Turkey |
