Quotes by Shaykh Abu-l Hacen Taraboulsi, the moqaddim of Shaykh Al Alawi in Annaba and the east of Algeria
_____________________________
Photo: Dervish in Qajar, Iran, by Antoin Sevruguin
________________________________________________
---------------------------------------------
Teach a child values so as to provide a moral compass: this is true religion. If, after that, they follow another's teaching, so be it. Teachings come and go but the values of the heart remain forever.
---------------------------------------------
Sheikh Isa taught not to hide one's lamp under a bushel. You, however, are the bushel and the lamp the Divine within. Isa also taught not to cast your pearls before swine. The lamp of the Divine is your pearls, so think of them as seeds, and you will plant them wisely.
---------------------------------------------
Do not hate a person for their bigotry if that is all they know. Hate the lack of knowledge and understanding that curses people to stupidity and superstition.
---------------------------------------------
To mistreat women in the name of religion is to do just that. Whoever knows God mistreats no-one.
---------------------------------------------
There is a love that is stately and proper and a love that is violent and insane. From the latter comes the former and from the former the proper state is known; you and I, what have we to do with proper states?
---------------------------------------------
It seemed as if my entire life was ruled by passions; now these very same passions save me from mediocrity.
---------------------------------------------
Only a fool believes they can control each and every thought; only a fool follows them all without thinking.
---------------------------------------------
Time is like the wind: who knows where it goes? who knows where it leads?
---------------------------------------------
It is not uncommon for a man to look to the left and to the right, but take care before you judge him for it: dishonourable men in times of strife and hardship have stepped into the gaps honourable men deserted in despair.
---------------------------------------------
Numbers are irrelevant, they lend no authenticity to our Islam, though they may be of comfort to the mind. Support is irrelevant, it advances no increase in our Islam, though it may be of comfort to the body.
---------------------------------------------
The man who rattles the cage from the outside has the liberty to do so. The man who rattles the cage from the inside cannot afford to do so for long.
---------------------------------------------
Do you not know Allah is concerned for those who follow the Way?
As for those who choose their own path, let them choose their own path.
Whoever obeys the Messenger obeys God and there are those who obey GOD who have never heard any Messenger at all.
---------------------------------------------
Men of rites and superstition! Of what use are empty actions without integrity, wisdom, humility and love? A thousand journeys to Mecca cannot compare to one journey toward God. If the journey towards God bypasses Mecca, is anyone at fault?
---------------------------------------------
If Muhammad saw what men do to women in the name of the faith he was instrumental in establishing, he would weep. Married to an older woman and bearing only daughters, Muhammad would weep. He would weep!
---------------------------------------------
It is not the trunk
crashing over rocks
as it makes its way downriver
that dams the flow of water
but the incessant tide
of leaves and twigs
the flotsam and jetsam
that jams up between the stones
dear brother.
---------------------------------------------
If they come looking for a saint, swear at them
if they come looking for a wise man, drool at the mouth
if they come looking for an example, offer them alcohol
but if they come looking for GOD bow at their feet.
---------------------------------------------
Perhaps not now and perhaps not here, but when the Master returns to examine his holdings, may you prove a wise steward of all that was entrusted to you.
---------------------------------------------
To know nothing of honour is to be dishonoured. We are not honourable men but strive to be.
---------------------------------------------
Trust yourself and do not go back on what you believe, not even for a good thing. Whatever requires actions contrary to your innate beliefs will never be good for you, and the Friend is best of all. In what way has the Friend asked you to go back on that which is good?
---------------------------------------------
What is wisdom without will?
To know what is just yet surrender to what is unjust;
to discern what is clear yet follow what is twisted;
to recognise what is correct yet lack the strength to obey it;
this is the folly of wisdom without will. A person like this
knows nothing and what little they do know
will be taken from them.
---------------------------------------------
See what you are then think what you could be. Becoming leads to being and to be has no need for or resistance to. After this there is no being as such, for that denotes a possibility, there is only be. If you be you will flourish in what you are. If you flourish in what you are you will flourish in what you do and what you do won't contain you, only the Supreme Being will contain you. That is freedom.
---------------------------------------------
When one is whole they are complete and when at last on the precipice of defeat, too exhausted to fight and casting down our weapons in despair, we will know perfect surrender having given up.
---------------------------------------------
Encourage another human with a kind word. There are amongst you elderly people who can pinpoint the year in which they were last complemented, thanked or admired, so uncommon has it become.
---------------------------------------------
O you vigorous youth! From where will you seek your affirmation? From whom and at what cost?
---------------------------------------------
There is a flowering weed which, when first planted, is pleasing to the eye. However, in time, it over-runs the entire garden killing off the plants you needed.
---------------------------------------------
I read once of a man who, extolled for his greatness, answered that he served a great God. There are many great men who are not good, and there are many good men who are not great, and the Friend moves across them all like clouds that hover above the ocean. This man was great because of his goodness.
---------------------------------------------
Of all the truly great human beings I have met none compare to a loving parent.
---------------------------------------------
To what can a person compare Allah?
It is the silence of stillness
It is the point of location
It is the center of movement
It is illumination beyond light.
---------------------------------------------
There is a man who tricks a woman into intercourse yet beats another for staring at his sister. Avoid these hypocrites, brother.
________________________________________________
Recommended Reading:
'A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh Ahmad al-Alawi'
By Martin Lings (Author)
Purchase Book:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Description:
Almost a prerequisite for any serious study of Sufism in European languages': this was the verdict of Seyyed Hossein Nasr in his review of the first edition of the book. According to the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, it is 'one of the most thorough and intimately engaging books on Sufism to be produced by a Western scholar' Certainly there is nothing second-hand about it. The author lets Sufis speak for themselves and, in a series of unusual and absorbing texts mainly translated from Arabic, he gives a vivid picture of life in a North African Sufi order. Against this background stands the unforgettable figure of the Algerian Shaikh who was head of the order from 1909 until his death in 1934. The last few chapters are mainly devoted to his writings, which include some penetrating aphorisms, and which end with a small anthology of his remarkable mystic poems.
_____________________________
________________________________________________
Leave a comment