seekeroftruth
10-05-2006, 05:15 PM
On Freedom
God Almighty and Glorious has said, "And they prefer others over themselves even when they are in destitute" (59:9).
They only prefer others to themselves in order to strip themselves of what they have abandoned anyway and preferred to leave to others. Ali ibn Ahmad al-Ahwazi reported... from Ibn Abbas, that the Messenger of God said, "That which minimally satisfies the needs of your flesh is sufficient for any one of you. Finally it comes down to four cubits and a span (the size of a grave). The whole business returns to its end."
Freedom means that a servant is not a slave to created beings and that things and events do not exercise control over them. The sign that it is sign and whole is that preferring one thing to another drops from a person's heart so that it makes no difference whatever may chance to occur.
Harithah said to the Messenger of God, "I have turned myself away from this world and its stones and its gold are all the same to me." I heard Muhammad bin al-Husayn say... from al-Daqqaq, "Whoever is free of this world in this world will be free of the next world in the next world."
Know that the reality of freedom is the perfection of servanthood. When you are sincere of being a servant to God Most High, your independence will save you from bondage to anything other than Him. If anyone imagines that the servant surrenders to God in order to throw off the restraints of servanthood at some other time and turns his attention away from the guidlines of what is commanded and what is forbidden—which are proper to this realm of responsibility—he is casting off the religion. God, Glory to Him, said to His Prophet, "Serve your Lord until that which is certain comes to you" (15:99). That means the end of life, and upon this all the commentators are agreed.
What the Sufis have indicated by hurriyah, freedom, is that the servant is not under the domination of any created thing, whether it pertains to this world or the next. He belongs solely to the One. He is not enslaved by any pressure of this world, by occurrences of any desire by any future fate—not by a want nor by an intention nor by a need nor by worldly fortune.
Shibli was asked, "Do you not know that He is unconditionally Merciful?" He said, "Indeed, but since I have realized His mercy I have not asked Him to have mercy upon me!"
The station of freedom is one of great power and dignity. I heard Abu Ali say that Abu-l-Abbas al-Sayyari used to say that if there were anything but recitation of the Quran that would make prayer complete, it would be this verse:
I always desire an impossible thing-
That my eyes should see as the eyes of a free man.
Here are the sayings of the shaykhs about freedom.
Husayn bin Mansur al-Hallaj said, "If someone wishes for freedom, let him attain servanthood." Junayd was asked about the case of someone who had no more of this world than than could be sucked off a date pit. He replied, "When a servant contracts to buy his freedom from his master, as long as he owes one dirham, he is still a slave." Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami said... that Junayd said, "You will not attain to pure freedom while any remnant of the reality of servanthood remains for you to achieve."
Bishr al-Hafi said, "Whoever want to taste the food of freedom and find rest from being a slave, let him purify the secret understanding that exist between him and God Most High." Al-Husayn bin Mansur said, "When the servant has fulfilled all the stages of servanthood he becomes free of toil of being a slave and pursues servanthood without care or ceremony. That is the station of prophets and the truthful. It means that they are borne rather than having to bear. Such a one encounters no difficulty in his heart, even if he is made to appear in difficulty."
Abu Abd al-Rahman recited to us... what Mansur al-Faqih recited of his own composition:
In all humanity no free man remains.
None. And none is free among the jinn.
The free of these two groups have passed away.
The savour of life has passed.
Know that the greater part of freedom is found in service to dervishes.
I heard Abu Ali al-Daqqaq say, "God most High revealed to Prophet David, 'If you see anyone who seeks Me, be his servant.'" The Prophet said, "The master of a people is their servant."
I heard Muhammad bin al-Husayn say... that Yahya bin Muadh said, "The sons of this world are served by slaves and slave girls, while the sons of the next are served by the righteous and the free." And I heard him say... that Ibrahim bin Adham said, "The generous free man gets out of this world before he is taken out of it." Ibrahim bin Adham also said, "Keep company with no one except a generous free man: he listens and does not lecture."
The Risalah—Principles of Sufism by Imam Abu-l-Qasim Abd-al-Karim bin Hawazin al-Qushayri
http://red-sulphur.org/node/547
God Almighty and Glorious has said, "And they prefer others over themselves even when they are in destitute" (59:9).
They only prefer others to themselves in order to strip themselves of what they have abandoned anyway and preferred to leave to others. Ali ibn Ahmad al-Ahwazi reported... from Ibn Abbas, that the Messenger of God said, "That which minimally satisfies the needs of your flesh is sufficient for any one of you. Finally it comes down to four cubits and a span (the size of a grave). The whole business returns to its end."
Freedom means that a servant is not a slave to created beings and that things and events do not exercise control over them. The sign that it is sign and whole is that preferring one thing to another drops from a person's heart so that it makes no difference whatever may chance to occur.
Harithah said to the Messenger of God, "I have turned myself away from this world and its stones and its gold are all the same to me." I heard Muhammad bin al-Husayn say... from al-Daqqaq, "Whoever is free of this world in this world will be free of the next world in the next world."
Know that the reality of freedom is the perfection of servanthood. When you are sincere of being a servant to God Most High, your independence will save you from bondage to anything other than Him. If anyone imagines that the servant surrenders to God in order to throw off the restraints of servanthood at some other time and turns his attention away from the guidlines of what is commanded and what is forbidden—which are proper to this realm of responsibility—he is casting off the religion. God, Glory to Him, said to His Prophet, "Serve your Lord until that which is certain comes to you" (15:99). That means the end of life, and upon this all the commentators are agreed.
What the Sufis have indicated by hurriyah, freedom, is that the servant is not under the domination of any created thing, whether it pertains to this world or the next. He belongs solely to the One. He is not enslaved by any pressure of this world, by occurrences of any desire by any future fate—not by a want nor by an intention nor by a need nor by worldly fortune.
Shibli was asked, "Do you not know that He is unconditionally Merciful?" He said, "Indeed, but since I have realized His mercy I have not asked Him to have mercy upon me!"
The station of freedom is one of great power and dignity. I heard Abu Ali say that Abu-l-Abbas al-Sayyari used to say that if there were anything but recitation of the Quran that would make prayer complete, it would be this verse:
I always desire an impossible thing-
That my eyes should see as the eyes of a free man.
Here are the sayings of the shaykhs about freedom.
Husayn bin Mansur al-Hallaj said, "If someone wishes for freedom, let him attain servanthood." Junayd was asked about the case of someone who had no more of this world than than could be sucked off a date pit. He replied, "When a servant contracts to buy his freedom from his master, as long as he owes one dirham, he is still a slave." Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami said... that Junayd said, "You will not attain to pure freedom while any remnant of the reality of servanthood remains for you to achieve."
Bishr al-Hafi said, "Whoever want to taste the food of freedom and find rest from being a slave, let him purify the secret understanding that exist between him and God Most High." Al-Husayn bin Mansur said, "When the servant has fulfilled all the stages of servanthood he becomes free of toil of being a slave and pursues servanthood without care or ceremony. That is the station of prophets and the truthful. It means that they are borne rather than having to bear. Such a one encounters no difficulty in his heart, even if he is made to appear in difficulty."
Abu Abd al-Rahman recited to us... what Mansur al-Faqih recited of his own composition:
In all humanity no free man remains.
None. And none is free among the jinn.
The free of these two groups have passed away.
The savour of life has passed.
Know that the greater part of freedom is found in service to dervishes.
I heard Abu Ali al-Daqqaq say, "God most High revealed to Prophet David, 'If you see anyone who seeks Me, be his servant.'" The Prophet said, "The master of a people is their servant."
I heard Muhammad bin al-Husayn say... that Yahya bin Muadh said, "The sons of this world are served by slaves and slave girls, while the sons of the next are served by the righteous and the free." And I heard him say... that Ibrahim bin Adham said, "The generous free man gets out of this world before he is taken out of it." Ibrahim bin Adham also said, "Keep company with no one except a generous free man: he listens and does not lecture."
The Risalah—Principles of Sufism by Imam Abu-l-Qasim Abd-al-Karim bin Hawazin al-Qushayri
http://red-sulphur.org/node/547