From washingtonpost.com:

Peter Houghton is grateful for his artificial heart. After all, it has saved his life.

He’s just a little wistful about emotions.

He wishes he could feel them like he used to.

Houghton is the first permanent lifetime recipient of a Jarvik 2000 left ventricular assist device. Seven years ago, it took over for the heart he was born with. Since then, it has unquestionably improved his physical well-being. He has walked long distances, traveled internationally and kept a daunting work schedule.

At the same time, he reports, he’s become more “coldhearted” — “less sympathetic in some ways.” He just doesn’t feel like he can connect with those close to him. He wishes he could bond with his twin grandsons, for example. “They’re 8, and I don’t want to be bothered to have a reasonable relationship with them and I don’t know why,” he says.

He can only feel enough to regret that he doesn’t feel enough.

Could the poets have been right all these millennia? Could emotions be matters of the heart?

Often when we hear of hadith discussing knowledge we think of it to mean either one of two things, knowledge of dunya (technology, medicine, etc), or Fiqhi knowledge. Shaykh Effendi is reminding us that when we are told to seek knowledge in China, we should reflect on what that knowledge is. In this regard I have chosen to excerpt a small part from an early treatise on Sufism regarding knowledge:

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Hatim al-Asamm said: ” I have chosen four things to know and have discarded all the knowledge in the world besides.” He was asked: ” What are they ?” ” One,” he answered, “is this: I know that my daily bread is apportioned to me , and will neither be increased nor diminished ; consequently I have ceased to seek to augment it. Secondly, I know that I owe to God a debt which no other person can pay instead of me; therefore I am occupied with paying it. Thirdly, I know that there is one pursuing me (i.e. Death) from whom I cannot escape accordingly I have prepared myself to meet him. Fourthly, I know that God is observing me ; therefore I am ashamed to do what I ought not”

The object of human knowledge should be to know God and His Commandments. Knowledge of “time” (ilm-i waqt) and of all outward and inward circumstances of which the due effect depends on “time”, is incumbent upon everyone. This is of two sorts: primary and secondary. The external division of the primary class consists in making the Muslims profession of faith, the internal division consists in the attainment of true cognition. The external division of the secondary class consists in the practice of devotion, the internal division consists in rendering one’s intention sincere The outward and inward aspects cannot be divorced. The exoteric aspect of Truth without the esoteric is hypocrisy, and the esoteric without the exoteric is heresy. So with regard to the Law, mere formality is defective, while mere spirituality is vain.

–Kashf Al-Mahjub of Al-Hujwiri: “The Revelation of the Veiled” : An Early Persian Treatise on Sufism

Imam Ahmed Sirhindi al-Rabbani (R) was a Grandshaykh of the Naksibendi order, his works outlined the strictest orthodoxy combined with the most beautiful level of spirituality. His written work, largely in Persian, remains one of the aspects of South Asian Islamic tradition which has been neglected by todays Muslims in India and abroad.

I will be providing some excerpts from his work Maktubat as provided through translations. Shaykh Effendi also explains this same concept in the best ways, often speaking of how our earthly forms are only one ray of light representing our reality. How many secrets are within this understanding (if we can really understand it)?

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This letter, written to Hajji Abdullatif Harazmi, informs of the mystery of why beautiful appearances are sweet:

Beauty, no matter where it is, is from the wujud, that is, from the real existence. Wujud, that is, existence, is the source of every goodness, every beauty. Only Allahu ta’ala exists. The existence of creatures has originated from Allahu ta’ala by way of shades. The beauty of creatures, also have come from the Divine Being by way of shades. The essence, the origin of creatures is ‘adam (nonexistence). ‘Adam is vice. Nonexistence is the source of all evil. For this reason, the essence of creatures is ugliness, deficiency. The beauty seen on creatures has come from the real existence, yet since it is seen on the mirror of ‘adam, it has become like ‘adam and has got a share from ugliness and deficiency. Because the creature is ugly in actual fact, a creature’s seeming beautiful to another creature is not from the true beauty of the real existence that causes the beauty in the creature. For, he has little relation with true beauty. Having an extensive relationship with the beauty which has been reflected on ‘adam and which has for this reason become ugly, he gets flavor from it. A man who cleans or repairs sewers does not enjoy fragrance as much as he enjoys the noxious smells he is used to. As we have heard, while a man of the sewerage was passing the perfumery market, odorous scents affected him and made him faint. They made him smell some najasat. The noxious scent smelling sweet to him, he recovered.

Sahih Bukhari

Book 4, Number 1769:
Abu Darda’ reported Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) as saying: Is any one of you incapable of reciting a third of the Qur’an in a night? They (the Companions) asked: How could one recite a third of the Qur’an (in a night)? Upon this he (the Holy Prophet) said:” He is Allah, One” (Qur’An. cxii.) is equivalent to a third of the Qur’an.

Thanks to the work of the Muslim Literary Society in organizing this publication and thanks to the spectacular translation capability of Shaykh Muhtar Holland, I am very pleased to present a 12 page sample of the forthcoming translation of the Ihya by Imam Ghazali (R).

Please keep in mind this a very rough draft and is still in need of further editing.

The project is also in need of funds, those who contribute will get their name in the acknowledgement section of the book. For more information leave a comment on this blog or email me at yursil@gmail.com and I will pass your information along to the appropriate people.

Click on the picture to view:

Again, this work is being translated in its entirety by Muhtar Holland and is produced by Muslim Literary Society.

Thanks to Sidi Moutasem and Shaykh Muhtar and everyone involved in this project.

The links of the first Ottoman rulers with dervishes are attested to by the earliest extant document of the Ottoman state, the grant in 1324 by Osman’s son Orhan of land east of Iznik for a dervish lodge. Such lodges, like the tomb of Christian saints, formed a nucleaus which attracted settlement into new areas and were an inexpensive means of securing the loyalty of the common people; dervish lodges symbolized the popular expression of Islam which flourished in Anatolia alongside the Sunni Islam of Seljuk imperial culture… The Ottoman sultans who followed Orhan were invariably affiliated to one of the dervish orders: coexistence and compromise between different manifestations of religious belief and practice is one the abiding themes of Ottoman history.

[source: "Osman's Dream" by Caroline Finkel]

This is one clear reason why non-Muslim historians or Orientalists in general fail so poorly at understanding the motivations behind many of the Ottoman actions. While on one hand they acknowledge the strong sufi ties of the Sultans, they have no idea what sort of impact the Tariqat can have on a person. They have absolutely no clue on what it means to be a dervish, yet they are taking it upon themselves to fit the personalities and motivations of the Sultans into molds of people that they can understand so that they can fill in between the lines of supposed ‘facts’.

One day, Shaykh Mubarak stopped by the home of Shaikh Muhammad Parsa. The venerable Khwaja asked Baba to make a supplication on behalf of his son, Khwaja Abu n-Nasr. Baba started to recite the Opening Sura [al-Fatiha], but then, before he had finished, he went out of the house and completed the Sura outside. They asked: “Since it is proper to complete al-Fatiha indoors, why did you go outside?” He said: “When I was starting to recite al-Fatiha, so many angels filled the house that I feared there was no space for me, so I went outside.”