Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid

May 31, 2012

Thursday Suhbat

www.circlegroup.org

Moving toward Allah on the Sayr ul Suluk

Directing our Self Love toward Allah Swt

Bismi-Llhi-r-Rahmni-r-Rahm . Obviously, this sayr ul suluk / journey is ultimately

about our nisbat / relationship with Allah Swt. If you follow these durs weve been
having recently, all the subjects of remembrance the practices, contemplation,
meditation, becoming the sincere seekers on this path revolve around this conscious
relationship with Allah Swt. Of course this relationship has many degrees. Would that it
would always be consistent, but it is like any relationship. One of the finalities or goals
of this relationship is when Allah calls us to Him, and the murd becomes murad.
Interestingly enough, human relationships seem to go in the other direction.

The relationship with Allah Swt begins when the seeker feels the need for that
relationship. He or she decides in their heart and mind to create some kind of method or
plan or to follow some path, so that this yearning, desire, or knowledge of this need for
that nearness and closeness to Allah Swt can come about. As one makes progress, even
before one knows one is making progress, the relationship gets stronger and stronger. The
relationship with patience, with love, with compassion, with wisdom, tolerance, with a
sense of safety and security and protection, becomes stronger. Because of that, one is
more and more inclined forward. Thats called leaning forward toward Allah. That
impulse toward Allah Swt is the sayr literally, toward.

This sayr, moving forward of the journey / the suluk, has segments to it. The first is
toward Allah: sayr-i-Llah, sayr-f-Llah, sayr-ma-Llah. These are the different
elements. This toward Allah is the part of the journey where one deals with their nafs,
and the nafs is, in itself, refined and the impurities are left behind. This is strengthened
by dhikru-Llh, by remembrance of Allah Swt, and literally, the dhikr both the
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Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid

May 31, 2012

Thursday Suhbat

www.circlegroup.org

meaning and the literal reality. With that, we say that there is this tajalli, the effulgent,
light, transmission, manifestation that comes. Hazrat used to say that you never know
whether it comes from outside in, or inside out, but it appears. The things that are
hindrances and blockages to the refinement of the nafs, that stand in our way of
perceiving that ocean of rahmat the love and hubb and muhabbat, and of salm, taslim,
security are removed. The habits that go along with human life, and with the
dominance of the nafs ammra become eliminated through muhasabat, and going
through the stages of nafs lawwama/rebuking of oneself, and through the sincere pursuit
of the practices in a regular and consistent way, which include reading Quran, study,
meditation, prayer.

The goodness, the piety, the purity that exist at the core of our being (the fitrah) express
their presence, and one becomes more and more inclined toward good actions, toward
virtue; and to whatever extent it can, that goodness becomes our habit. Allah Swt created
us as habitual beings for a purpose. Most people of course develop what we call bad
habits. Prayers, and study, and service, and all the different forms of ibda we spoke of
recently become not only manifest, but they are a conveyance upon which we can feel
secure in our decision-making, in our life, and in our relationships, without which we
never really know. Unless human beings share something that transcends the limitations
of human ability to construct, i.e. the path, religion, practices, we never really know what
the capacity of that other individual is, or the dimensions of that relationship. We usually
turn it into some kind of psychological or emotional thing. But beyond the emotion,
there is the security and safety that lies in the path, in the tariqah.

The person normally starts to concern themselves and care about what is right by Allah
and what is right for human beings. You might call it human rights Divine right, and
human right. These are terms we use in English. We say a king rules by divine right.
There must be some Divine standard. When that happens, and a person is inclined toward
that goodness, and it becomes their default or pattern, that sayr-i-Llah is attained. It is a
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Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid

May 31, 2012

Thursday Suhbat

www.circlegroup.org

maqam. This is where it starts. Because when a person begins to contemplate, reflect,
and meditation on the Attributes of Allah, and according to the individuals capacity and
capability to absorb and to see the need and manifestation of those attributes in their life,
those attributes and qualities, which are unlimited of course, beyond even our khayal /
imagination, begin to dominate our own thinking and our own behavior. We become
more inclined to that relationship with Allah: sayr-i-Llah. It means we are more inclined
to compassion, mercy, love, tolerance, patience, understanding, and the values that come
from law. [We are] more inclined toward the lam al-amr (the world of command), and
less inclined toward the lam al-khalq.

We think of this word sayr and begin to think that when you move from one place to
another, you leave something behind. Im leaving Bedford now and entering
Lynchburg. Were leaving the gravitational pull of the earth and now entering into free
space. It means you are coming from one place and moving toward another.

Life is a

dynamic. Its a physical dynamic, a mental, and intellectual dynamic. It also has
direction; its not just randomly dynamic. It has direction. The baby is born with billions
of brain cells which have to be trained, directed, associated. Then you get like me, and
the brain cells are dying! Actually, it has been shown more and more in recent years
that there are ways to rejuvenate brain cells. What is it we are leaving behind, if we are
moving toward Allah?

If we look at ourselves and our habits, and the vocations we have chosen, and our
avocations (which for some of us is the same as our vocations), and if we look at what
our interests are, it becomes quite evident to us what we have to leave. Just like children
leave behind childhood when they become adolescents and were very interested that
they leave adolescents and become ignorant again, because in adolescence they know
everything we also have to leave things behind. If we look at those habits and
pastimes, and those previous interests, it becomes clear what we have to leave. But, it
also becomes clear how entangled we are with our desires and how hard it is to change,
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Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid

May 31, 2012

Thursday Suhbat

www.circlegroup.org

(as opposed to soft to change). So we attempt and fail, attempt and fail, and the worst
thing to do is forget that is important. I refer you back to the Ihya al Deen of Imam al
Ghazali.

It becomes evident to us that leaving what we know we should leave is not as easy as
knowing it. We get into this quicksand, and you know the only way to survive quicksand
is to surrender and lie flat. Dont struggle. Stop struggling, and wait for someone to come
along, or slowly push your way to the shore. How do you do that? What are you
moving toward? The Names and Attributes, the Sifat of Allah Swt, are unlimited. They
are all encompassing, and they are everlasting: al-Hayyu al-Qayyum, wa Dhal jelali wal
ikram. Youre moving toward that, toward dhat: the essence of those sifat. You are
moving toward them in a way that as you do these practices and enter these circles, that
which is unlimited, and they are unlimited, and that which is beyond our capacity to even
imagine begins to become obvious to us. At this point, we have to turn back and migrate
toward Allah Swt. Its a migration.

Indeed, it is a migration, just like Allah Swt has given us the images, metaphors, and
analogies in the physical world. The salmon migrate, the whales migrate, the birds
migrate. Everything migrates. to where they were born, to the place of their inception /
conception. The salmon die in the streams where they were born. Theyve made the
circle. Hey, were talking about circles. This circumstance is pointed out by Allah Swt in
the Quran: Have you see the one who takes his own desires to be his god? And for
that reason, Allah lets him go astray, knowing that he is closed to the guidance, and
He has set a seal upon his hearing and his heart, and set a veil over his vision. So
who will guide him after Allah has led him astray? Wont you remember?

This sayr-i-Llah means you have to leave things behind, like your arrogance, your greed,
your pride, your ignorance, your wrong inclinations, your fruitless desires, and indeed,
your fears, your worries, and your concerns, especially starting with the nafs ammra.
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Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid

May 31, 2012

Thursday Suhbat

www.circlegroup.org

You have to give up the habits of self-adulation and move toward Allah Swt, Who loves
you more than you love yourself. Its pretty silly to think that we love ourselves, in a
way. Of course, we care for ourselves, but if everybody loved themselves naturally, we
wouldnt have drugs, murders, and all the terrible things we have in this world.

People have the capacity to learn how to love themselves, but not that lower self. You
cant love that lower self. You become habituated to it, enticed by it, by Shaytan, so to
speak. But to love yourself, you have to know yourself. If you know yourself, we know in
the hadith quds, you know your Lord. We move toward Allah, Who loves us in this way,
and begin to realize that in this strange way, we have been our own worst enemy. We
have constructed complex systems to convince ourselves what we think is good and right,
what we deserve, that our opinion is right, etc. The lower a person in that line of the nafs,
the more arrogant they are, the more greedy they are, the more deserving they feel. The
more people get like Donald Trump, if you need an image.

When we reflect on sayr-f-Llah, it is really reflecting on that Divine Presence. You are
reflecting upon, and you are reflecting in your life those Attributes of Allah Swt. They
become more and more dominant. There are things that get in the way, in the circle of
life. You are sitting in this circle. You are contemplating jami asma wa sifat. You are in
this transmission, the third of the first circle, lets say. Everythings fine. Then someone
ticks you off, which is a good term to use in the summertime here. Who are you calling
a chigger? What happens? Do you lose it completely? Well, to the other person, it may
seem that you do, but you may be in terrible pain because now you are in the nafs
lawwama also, and you are trying very, very hard to deal. You are rebuking yourself in
the midst of that process. You are getting no support but from Allah. You remember to
remember, and you realize that in the beginning and in the end, as Khaled would say,
there is only Allah.

Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid

May 31, 2012

Thursday Suhbat

www.circlegroup.org

The result of this meditation / muraqabah has to become part of our day to day practical
life. It has to. It must mean that the meditation has many different forms. Meditation
doesnt end when you get up from this masjid and go out. You might not want to be
talked to for the first few minutes like me. I get very touchy about that. It carries on. It
takes another form, which is: do you remember to make the next words you say kind? Do
you remember to dismiss the next thing that comes into your mind, as opposed to just
accept it? Do you find that you are in control, or your mind is in control, or your
emotions, or your fears? And how do you break this cycle? You break the cycle with a
circle.
There are the cycles that come from the lam al-khalq, and cycles that come from the
lam al-amr. Slowly, if we reflect on the Attributes of Allah Swt, and on those yt
that come (especially in the second circle: He loves them and they love Him
yuhibbuhum), it becomes more and more easy for us to act according to the Will of Allah
Swt. It becomes very, very clear to know what the Will of Allah Swt is. The question of
what is the Will of Allah Swt disappears. It is not an intellectual question anymore. We
say, He who knows knows; none else knows. As you know; you know. This circle is
called tawaf of the Kaba. This is the sayr al-Kaba, also known as sayr-i-Llah, and sayrf-Llah. Even though the Kaba in the physical world is made of stone, it is also a
manifestation of the Divine Qualities of Allah Swt, because it points to the One Who is to
be worshiped and loved. Each and every one of us are required to, encouraged to,
admonished to, bow before Allah Swt at the Kaba.

You dont see Allah when you bow. This Allah is not limited to time or space. Just like
you can pour tea into my glass, but you cannot pour compassion or peace or mercy into
my glass. Yet, you can be filled with compassion, mercy, and peace; and you can dole it
out; but you cannot contain it in a structure. Therefore, the Kaba does not hold Allah. It
is isharat; it points toward Allah. Allah says in Surah al-Baqarah, wherever you are, turn
your faces in the direction of the Kaba. When we make sujd, and our heads are on the
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Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid

May 31, 2012

Thursday Suhbat

www.circlegroup.org

ground in sajdah, and we are manifesting or demonstrating humility and sincerity, the
Prophet Muhammed (sal) said when we are prostrating in front of Allah, we are very
close to Allah. Now its not distance in terms of space and time, but distance in terms of
sincerity and ibda. We are very close to Allah. He said that the person achieves the
greatest closeness to Allah Swt when his forehead touches the ground in adoration to his
Creator. This is the reality of sajdah.

Interestingly enough, the more humble you are, the higher the heights you get to. The
lower you bow, the higher you rise. This Divine closeness can become more and more
conscious so that this bowing to Allah means that you have to be prepared. You dont just
bow because you are told to bow. Our whole path is about preparation. In Japan, they
bow to each other. When our friend Harold goes to meet the queen of the Netherlands, he
bows. You dont go in shorts and a T-shirt or a Hawaiian shirt. You go with the proper
attire. Maybe you wear a sash. Harold is a Knight of the Order of Orange. So he wears
his pin, and dresses in a tuxedo. When we go to meet someone of that status, we have to
prepare ourselves. Get a haircut; go to the beauty parlor, get a toupee. Take a shower. Put
on some makeup (girls, I mean).

You have to prepare yourselves inwardly, too. Im going to meet the queen! Every day
we are going to meet Allah. Are we dressing for Allah? Are we grooming for Allah?
Are we preparing internally for Allah? Because the world is full of pollution and dirt,
and needs to be cleansed from our bodies, our feelings, and our emotions. This
meditation becomes very profound when you are doing it in rh. Qalb has been
prepared, but when you are sitting in rh, your souls cries out for a return to Allah. I
want to go home! like Ahmed says to Dina. I want to go outside. I want to go inside. I
want to open the door. I want to close the door. He remembers, somewhere in deep
cellular memory, when his soul was free. At his age, with his kind of personality, he is
feeling confined by the body. So he has to be directed. All these babies are like that.

Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid

May 31, 2012

Thursday Suhbat

www.circlegroup.org

When you come to Allah prepared, your soul is crying out to Allah. The spirit wants to
return to spirit. Spirit to spirit goes, as my Yoga teacher used to say. That is why, at
the Kaba, people weep and cry out to Allah. When they come to that point in their soul,
people will weep. What comes before your face at a time like that? Your sins. Your
impurities, the things you wish you had changed. So you implore Allah, Who you know
is not some god somewhere sitting on a throne somewhere, or inside the Kaba taking
notes. You call out naturally to the Source of all change and all capacities. You beg for
forgiveness and then the tawaf begins. Every time that salik reaches the hijra aswad (the
black stone) you make your vow. O Allah, I turn all my attention, all my deeds, all my
efforts toward achieving Your pleasure and Your nearness. Wa anta maksudi, wa ridiqa
maghlubi.

Thats what you should do in your muraqabah, circling the qalb, circling with the rh,
khaf, sirr, akhf. Thats what everyone of us should do daily, making tawaf, saying,
Anta maksudi wa ridiqa maghlubi. The effect of this muraqabah on the life of a
sincere salik or salika on the sayr ul suluk is that they are more and more inclined to
Allah, more and more inclined to ibda, more sincere, more sure of themselves, more
understanding not just of what is right and wrong, but those degrees [of right and wrong].
No flattery can change you, and no undeserving blame can change you. You know the
source of this knowledge comes from Allah, down through Hazrat Adam (as) and all the
people, to our families, our mothers and fathers especially the mother then all the
blanks are filled in by the guidance of the shuyukh, and we circle back around to the
Prophet (sal) (who is being pointed to).
The parent points us to our dn; the dn points us to our values and our character, our
morals and ethics. That points us toward the Path. The Path is a circle, a tariqah. It is a
road, a pathway. It points back to Raslu-Llh (sal), and back to Allah Swt, and then
cycle begins again in another dimension, in the dimension of each latfa. The realization
of the greatness of Allah and the humility of our own self becomes disclosed to us, and it
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Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid

May 31, 2012

Thursday Suhbat

www.circlegroup.org

happens. It happens to some degree if you just do your practices and nothing else, and
you are half-donkey about it. It will happen, but it wont happen enough for you to feel
fully satisfied.

There is no shame in that crying out, no shame in that love. There is simplicity in it.
During Hajj, everybody is in ihram. People are crying and weeping, speaking a hundred
different languages. No one is ashamed. You may say to a person to recite out loud, and
they say, Oh, I cant do it. But there, they dont think twice about it. The same thing is
inside your heart in relationship with Allah Swt. Who are you fooling? When you sit in
muraqabah, you are not fooling anyone. You are in the company of Allah. All your bad
habits, laziness, torpor, putting off, all this other stuff once you get there, you know
you are in the right place.

Whats the reality? The people who cry in front of the Kaba and weep for all those days,
do they go home and never commit another sin? Do they never do anything wrong
again? Hajja Salma, have you committed a wrong action or thought since you came back
from Hajj? One or two. (More!) Its our nature to forget things and fall back, and catch
the diseases of the world around us. The clothes that we wash, do they ever get dirty
again? Ask Mitra how many times she goes to the laundry room every day. They have
to be washed again and again. At the same time, when you are wearing clean clothes, you
tend to be a little careful. I have a gray thobe that if I am anywhere near anything, it gets
dirty. But when you are all dressed up, arent you careful about how you are? Those of
us with moustaches and beards have to be careful about how we eat and drink, because it
drips down on us. No matter how hard you try to keep away from the filth, some dust,
some stains, get on the clothes. If its a hot day, guess whats going to happen? Youre
going to schivtz (perspire), as we say in Italian.

Where does that bring us? It brings us to understand that we begin this spiritual journey,
like many of you, with ascetisim and real zeal. But things change, and worldly things
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Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid

May 31, 2012

Thursday Suhbat

www.circlegroup.org

come. Allah says, That you grieve for the things that escape you and do not rejoice
over what you are given. That tends to happen, but we have to somehow change it.
We have to rejoice and affirm what has been given to us. Not longing for the world and
material things doesnt mean you dont feel happiness or sadness. You dont exalt what
is beautiful. It doesnt mean you dont enjoy the pleasantries of life. This kind of
happiness doesnt come from the love of material things, the love of wealth, the ego,
fame, name, and all these contingent circumstances of life. It comes from finding yourself
immersed in the ocean of Divine love and wisdom and magnificence and munificence
and generosity. Because thats where it comes from, you can enjoy the world, you can
enjoy life. It doesnt come from the things that can be taken away, or the things that cost,
or that benefits you at the expense of someone else.

Then there is the whole subject of forgiveness, which we wont get into tonight. After
one passes through these beginning stages, the salik or salika will find out that he or she
has a strong inclination, desire, and attachment to their own soul. You lift yourself to the
level of eshq, and all your efforts and all your spiritual mujahadah / jihad / struggling
come from this excessive love for your own self. Now Ive cycled back to the beginning.
In effect, since we are selfish and ego-centric by that Divine decree, when our ancestor
began this cycle we call life, we start to realize how much we have sacrificed for the love
of our own ego and our own self, protecting ourselves out of fear. We know that people
will destroy everything and other people just for their own survival.

Then there are those few heroic souls who give their lives for someone else. They stand
out in our society, in the world. We still know who they are. Their names are engraved
on buildings, emblazoned in bronze. Medallions are cut for them, and images are made
for them. I grew up in Pittsburgh where they had this huge, huge painting of Joe
Mazzerak, the steel worker who was the perfect worker, the hero of everyone.
Everybody knew who Joe Mazzerak was, a secular man, a fictional laborer, working in

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Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid

May 31, 2012

Thursday Suhbat

www.circlegroup.org

the steel mills, representing the hard labor of all those immigrants. There are these heroic
figures in our lives. But we should be heroic figures to those around us.

This struggle against the ego, the jihad al akbar, is the most difficult one unless that
passion for our self is eliminated, and that instinct is directed toward Allah Swt. If not,
that light, the tajalli bari taala, the effulgence, will not be manifest in our hearts, and the
salik will not free himself or herself, and will not come near to Allah, sayr-i-Llah. Thats
where the pleading begins inside of ourselves, and is manifest at the Kaba internally and
externally. How wonderful the cycle is. Asalaamu aleikum.

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