"Counsels of a Sufi Master" - an essay by Ralph (R.W.J.) Austin http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.com/Public/articles/Counsels_o...

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"Counsels of a Sufi Master" - an essay by Ralph (R.W.J.) Austin http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.com/Public/articles/Counsels_o...

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Counsels of a Sufi Master

by

Ralph (R.W.J.) Austin

Source: Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Autumn, 1971). © World Wisdom, Inc.
www.studiesincomparativereligion.com

DURING its long history the Shādhilī Order has produced many masters of great stature, many of whom have left to us precious records of
their spiritual guidance and teaching. Eminent among these masters was the author of the sayings translated below, Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh
al-Iskandarī, disciple of Abū al-‘Abbās al-Mursī whose own master had been the founder of the Order, Abū al-Hasan al-Shādhilī. His sayings
or Hikam must rank among the finest works of spiritual counsel, not only in Islam, but in the world.

Not very much is known concerning the details of his life. He was born in Alexandria during the 13th century, but later moved to Cairo where
he spent most of his life. He died there in 1309 A.D.

Of his twenty compositions only six have been printed, and of these three deserve special mention.

In his Latā'if al-minan[1] Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh wrote an account of his own master Abū al-‘Abbās al-Mursī and also Abū al-Hasan al-Shādhilī, thus
providing us with valuable information on two of the most eminent masters of the Order. Partly in answer to Ibn Taymiyya's attack on the
practice of dhikr or the invocation of the divine Name, he wrote a work entitled Al-Qasd al-mujarrad fī ma`rifat al-ism al-mufrad[2] in which
he supports the practice and discusses its great benefits.

The greatest of all his works and that for which he is best known is his Hikam,[3] a collection of over two hundred sayings intended as
spiritual guidance for his disciples. The last part of the work consists of a long prayer which is a synthesis of all the sayings which precede it.
It is one of the finest pieces of devotional writing in Islamic literature. Some sixty-four sayings have been selected and translated below.

Some indication of the importance of this work in Sufi literature is the number of commentaries which have been written on it. Nine
commentaries are mentioned by Brockellman in his Geschichte des Arabischen Literatur.[4] The two most famous commentaries are Ghawth
al-mawāhib by Ibn ‘Abbād al-Rundī,[5] and Tanbīh dhawī al-himam by another great master of the Order, Ahmad Zarrūq.[6] The former
commentary is particularly valuable in that al-Rundī provides a wealth of quotations both from Sufi and Hadith literature to illustrate his
commentary. It is hoped at some future date to prepare another selection from the Hikam, perhaps on some particular topic, incorporating
these quotations.

The central theme of the Hikam is undoubtedly the continuous and all-pervading contemplation or consciousness of God (shuhūd). Implicit in
and deriving from this central concept are the two subsidiary themes of the work, that of complete honesty (sidq) in realizing (tahaqquq)
one's status as servant, and that of fulfilling all that is due to His Lordship.

The intention of the Hikam is clearly, not only to encourage and enlighten the aspirant on the Sufi Way, but above all to leave him no room at
all for egoistic maneuver, self-justification or self-deception. The Hikam drives the reader relentlessly to the point where he must face
unflinchingly the stark reality of his own utter helplessness and nothingness (fāqah). The author penetrates inexorably into even the deepest
strongholds of egoistic illusion. However we will let the Hikam speak for itself.

SELECTED Hikam

1 Your wishing to be isolated (from the world) when God has placed you in its midst betrays selfish desire; to wish for the world when God
has isolated you from it is evidence of a decline in your aspiration.

2 Bury your existence in the soil of obscurity; for that which is not buried, though it may sprout, will never bear fruit.

3 All relative being is a darkness illumined only by God's Self-manifestation within it. Whoever looks upon created beings without
perceiving Him in them, around them, before them and after them is devoid of all spiritual lights and is veiled by the clouds of ephemera from
the suns of gnosis.

4 How could one imagine that anything veils Him, when it is He Who manifests everything?
How could one imagine that anything veils Him, when He is manifest through everything?
How could one imagine that anything veils Him, when He is manifest in everything?
How could one imagine that anything veils Him, when He is manifest to everything?
How could one imagine that anything veils Him, when He was manifested before anything was?
How could one imagine that anything veils Him, when He is more manifest than anything else?
How could one imagine that anything veils Him, when He is the Incomparable?
How could one imagine that anything veils Him, when He is closer to you than anything else?
How could one imagine that anything veils Him, since, were it not for Him, nothing would exist?

5 He who wishes for something at a time other than that in which God has ordained its manifestation has lost nothing of his ignorance.

6 Your seeking from Him only shows your lack of faith in Him.
Your seeking after Him only shows that you have absented yourself from His Presence.
Your seeking after other than Him only betrays your shamelessness before Him.
Your seeking from other than Him only shows your distance from Him.

7 Do not be surprised at the tribulations of this world; the world only produces what is consistent with its ephemeral nature.

8 What a difference there is between the one who infers the existence of created things from His existence and the one who infers His
Reality from the existence of created beings! The former knows God through Himself, inferring the existence of created things from the
existence of their Origin. The latter, because he has not yet attained to Him, infers the existence of God (from relative existence). When is He

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"Counsels of a Sufi Master" - an essay by Ralph (R.W.J.) Austin http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.com/Public/articles/Counsels_o...

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