The One Alone

I was filled with wonder and amazement when I first came upon Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi's manuscript, "The One Alone." I carried it around for awhile, taking it on long trips back when I was travelling up and down the east coast and sometimes out west. Ibn 'Arabi is known as the "Shaykh al Akbar" or the greatest shaykh of Sufism. Without a doubt he has mastered the path of knowledge, a fully realized teacher of gnosis.

Ibn 'Arabi's works contain wondrous secrets on the inner workings of creation. His teachings are gifts that peel away veil after veil, speaking from essence to essence. Presented here is an excerpt from his essay, "The One Alone." It contains some of the most advanced teachings in Sufism. This truth is not easy to comprehend and for most may be very difficult to digest, but Ibn 'Arabi reveals this light as plainly as it can be offered. Open of your heart, it already understand this truth.

Know that He is never in anything, nor is anything in Him. He is neither inside nor outside of anything. None can see Him, whether with the eyes of the head or with the inner eye; nor can any conceive Him with senses, knowledge, mind, intelligence or imagination. Only He can see Himself; only He can conceive Himself. None can know Him; only He can know Himself. He sees Himself by Himself; He conceives Himself by Himself; He knows Himself by Himself. None other than He can see Him. None other than He can know Him. That which hides Him is His oneness. None but Himself can hide Him. The veil that hides Him is His own being.

He is not within you; nor are you in Him. He does not exclude you, nor are you excluded from Him. When you are addressed as you, do not think that you exist, with an essence and qualities and attributes; for you never existed, nor do exist, norever will exist. You have not entered into Him, nor He into you. Without being, your essence is with Him and in Him. Without having any identity, you are Him and He is you. If you know yourself as nothing, then you truly know your Lord. Otherwise, you truly know Him not.

You cannot know your Lord by making yourself nothing. Many a wise man claims that in order to know one's Lord one must denude oneself of the signs of one's existence, efface one's identity, finally rid oneself of one's self. This is a mistake. How could a thing that does not exist try to get rid of its existence?

If you think that to know Allah depends on you ridding yourself of yourself, then you are guilty of attributing partners to Him, the only unforgivable sin; because you are claiming that there is another existence besides Him, the all-existent; that there is a you and a He.

You presume others to be other than Allah. There is nothing other than He, but you do not know this. While you are looking at Him you do not recognize Him. When the secret opens to you, you will know that you are none other than He. Then you will also know that you are the one whom He wished, and that you are forever and will not disappear with time, for there is no passing of time. Your attributes are His. Without doubt, your appearance is His appearance.

Therefore, do not think anymore that you need to become nothing, that you need to annihilate yourself in Him. If you thought so, then you would be His veil, while a veil over Allah is other than He. How could you be a veil that hides Him? What hides Him is His being the One Alone.

The condition for self-knowledge is to know that if you had a being of your own, independent of other being, then you would neither have need to annihilate yourself in Allah nor to know yourself. You would have been, as yourself, a God, self-existent; while it is Allah Most High that is free from the existence of any other God but Himself.

And when you come to know yourself, you will be sure that you neither exist nor do not exist, whether now, or before, or in the future. This is the meaning of "la ilaha illa Llah," There is no God but Allah, there is no being but His, nor any other except Him, and He is the only One.

Know that this existence is neither you nor other than you. You do not exist; yet you are also not a nonexistence. Your existence is not someone else; nor does your nonexistence make you someone else. Without being and without not-being, your existence and your nonexistence is Allah's being.

The void is a mirror; creation is the image in it. Man is as the eye of the image reflected in the mirror; the One who is reflected in the image is hidden in the pupil of that eye. Thus He sees Himself.

Is one to consider a decaying corpse or excrement as God? Allah most high is beyond and free from such associations. We address those who do not see a corpse as a corpse or excrement as excrement.

Then when you see what is around you as not other-than-you, and all and everything as the existence of the One; when you do not see anything else with Him or in Him; but see Him in everything as yourself and at the same time as the nonexistence of yourself; then what you see is the Truth.

That is why the utterance became permissible for Mansur Al-Hallaj when the words, "I am the Truth!" came from his lips; and for Abu Yazid Al-Bistami when he cried, "Praise be to Me, the essence, absolved of all defect!" These are not people who have annihilated themselves in Allah; nor have they come to be in Allah. They are eternal. They never ceased to be, for they never were, since there is only Allah's self, Allah's essence.

So if someone says, "I am the Truth!," do not hear it from any other than from the Truth Himself; for it is not a man who says it, it is the word of Allah. That man who utters these words is nothing but an image reflected in an empty mirror, one of the infinite attributes of Allah. The reflection is the same as that which is being reflected, and the words of the image are the reflected words of the Real One.

Excerpts from "The One Alone," a treatise by 13th-century Sufi master Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi. The whole essay is only 20 pages, and is a marvel of precision and intensity.

The Murshid is Everywhere

I was reading Hazrat Inayat Khan's teachings on initiation and discipleship and came across the following passages. It is a blessing to be able to look back on my life and see how often the windows of knowledge and inspiration were open when there was an openness to learning and a free flow of love between two beings. Very often this is how spiritual transmission manifests and is communicated, from one heart to another; with the former playing the role of the messenger. Spiritually, we learn most from those we are open to, those that we love.

If a person does not become enlightened, then one can find the explanation by watching the rain. It falls upon all trees, but it is according to the response of those trees that they grow and bear fruit. The sun shines upon all the trees, it makes no distinction between them. However, it is according to the response that the trees give to the sun that they profit by its sunshine. At the same time, a mureed (student) is very often an inspiration to the murshid (teacher). It is not the murshid who teaches, it is God who teaches. The murshid is only a medium, and as high as the response of the mureed reaches, so strongly does it attract the message of God.

The mureed can be inspired, but he can also cease to inspire. If there is no response on his side, or if there is antagonism or lack of interest, then the inspiration of the murshid is shut off; just like the clouds which cannot produce a shower when they are above the desert. The desert affects them; but when the same clouds are above the forest, the trees attract them and the rain falls.

Mullah Nasruddin

Aside from poems and parables, Sufis use jokes to convey teachings. A central figure of many of these stories is the Mullah Nasruddin. We all have a Mullah Nasruddin inside each of us, but often times he is difficult to spot. Here is a little wisdom from this holy fool:

A neighbor who Nasruddin didn't like very much came over to his compound one day. The neighbor asked Nasruddin if he could borrow his donkey. Nasruddin not wanting to lend his donkey to the neighbor he didn't like told him, "I would love to loan you my donkey but only yesterday my brother came from the next town to use it to carry his wheat to the mill to be grounded. The donkey sadly is not here."

The neighbor was disappointed. But he thanked Nasruddin and began to walk away.

Just as he got a few steps away, Mullah Nasruddin's donkey, which was in the back of his compound all the time, let out a big bray.

The neighbor turned to Nasruddin and said, "Mullah Sahib, I thought you told me that your donkey was not here."

Mullah Nasruddin turned to the neighbor and said, "My friend, who are you going to believe, me or the donkey?"

Rumifest

For years, copying other people, I tried to know myself.
From within, I couldn't decide what to do.
Unable to see, I heard my name being called.
Then I walked outside.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.

— Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi


I may be going to Rumifest at the end of the month with Muhammad Jamal (insh' Allah). I resonate with the Zikr of the Rafai Marufi Order. The Rafai are hosting this event. It will be a blessing to be around other dervishes. As Rumi very often points out longing has the power to awaken. These events are opportunities to explore the longing, feed the spirit, and be more awake.